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UNIVERSITY  .OF  PENNSYLVANIA 


The  Rise  of  the  Great  Manufacturers 
in  England,  1760-1790 


BY 

WITT  BOWDEN 


A  THESIS 

PRESENTED    TO    THE    FACULTY    OF    THE    GRADUATE    SCHOOL 

IN   PARTIAL  FULFILLMENT  OF  THE   REQUIREMENTS   FOE 

THE  DEGREE  OF   DOCTOR   OF   PHILOSOPHY 


H.  RAT  HAAS  &  CO. 

Printers  and   Publishers 

AUentown,  Pa. 

1919 


Copyright,  1919 

BY 

WITT  BOWDEN 
EXCHANGE 


.<L^ 


6*^ 


PREFATORY  NOTE 

This  work  was  originally  undertaken  with  the  view  of  ascer- 
taining the  relation  of  public  opinion  in  England  in  the  latter 
part  of  the  eighteenth  century  to  the  invention  and  application 
of  mechanical  methods  of  production.  The  investigation  was 
broadened  into  a  study  of  the  early  effects  of  the  new  methods  of 
production  on  the  reorganization  of  economic  classes.  The  period 
covered  is  one  of  undisturbed  development  preceding  the  wars  of 
the  French  Revolution.  The  field  of  labor  as  well  as  of  capital 
was  included  in  the  scope  of  the  inquiry,  but  only  the  latter  as- 
pect of  the  subject  has  been  incorporated  in  the  present  paper. 

The  sources  upon  which  the  student  must  depend  for  knowl- 
edge of  this  subject  are  in  many  instances  remote  from  the  more 
familiar  archives  of  political  and  economic  history.  The  account 
of  the  General  Chamber  of  Manufacturers  of  Great  Britain,  for 
instance,  has  been  derived  in  part  from  the  Chamber's  resolu- 
tions and  official  notices  published  in  the  advertising  columns  of 
the  daily  press.  It  will  be  observed  that  extensive  use  has  been 
made  of  the  controversial  literature  of  the  period  studied.  In 
the  use  of  such  works,  questions  of  authorship,  motive,  and  bias 
in  the  statement  of  facts  give  rise  to  serious  difficulties  in  the 
exercise  of  critical  judgment.  But  in  view  of  the  importance  of 
contemporaneous  opinion  in  stimulating  invention  and  economic 
progress  and  in  affording  evidence  of  the  emergence  of  new  eco- 
nomic groups,  and  in  view  of  the  conflicts  of  these  groups  with 
other  groups  and  with  the  government,  the  controversial  litera- 
ture of  the  time  cannot  be  ignored. 

The  study  has  been  undertaken  and  pursued  during  the  pro- 
found disturbance  of  war,  and  access  to  the  sources  in  England 

V 


VI  PREFATORY  NOTE 

has  not  been  possible.  Publication  of  the  results  of  a  more  com- 
prehensive study  must  therefore  be  deferred  till  English  ar- 
chives as  well  as  American  sources  have  been  utilized.  For  gen- 
erous assistance  in  the  preparation  of  the  present  paper,  the 
writer  is  indebted  to  various  librarians  and  to  members  of  the 
history  faculty  of  the  University  of  Pennsylvania.  He  desires  to 
acknowledge  in  particular  the  guidance  and  inspiration  of  Pro- 
fessors E.  P.  Cheyney  and  W.  E.  Lingelbach. 

W.  B. 
University  of  Pennsylvania, 
Philadelphia,  Pa., 

April,  1919. 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 
I.  The  Era  of  Invention 1 

II.  The  Economic  Basis  of  the  New  Industrial  Group 26 

III.  The  General  Chamber  of  Manufacturers  of  Great  Britain  49 

Bibliography 82 


VII 


THE  RISE  OF  THE  GREAT  MANUFACTURERS 
IN  ENGLAND,  1760-1790 


CHAPTER  I 
The  Era  op  Invention 

Previous  to  the  rise  of  the  great  manufacturers  incident  to 
the  transition  to  mechanical  production,  the  productive  resources 
of  England  were  mainly  in  the  hands  of  the  landlords  and  mer- 
chant princes.  The  basis  of  the  former  class  was  the  control  of 
natural  resources ;  the  basis  of  the  latter  was  an  elaborate  and 
monopolistic  commercial  system.  The  great  manufacturers,  who 
rose  rapidly  to  a  sense  of  unity  and  a  position  of  power  during 
the  first  half  of  the  reign  of  George  III,  were  possessed  of  neither 
commercial  monopoly  nor  a  monopoly  of  natural  resources. 
Their  origin  was  in  the  transition  to  mechanical  production ; 
their  economic  basis  was  in  the  superior  productive  and  competi- 
tive power  of  the  new  machines. 

The  rise  of  the  new  manufacturers  was  accompanied  by  an 
extreme  individualism  as  well  as  by  great  power.  Their  power 
grew  out  of  the  use  of  machines,  but  their  individualism  was  in- 
dependent of  the  transition  to  mechanical  methods.  For  that 
transition  was  not  an  individualistic  but  a  social  creation,  the 
result  of  widely  diffused  interests  and  organized  activities  on  the 
part  of  the  people  of  the  time.  The  names  most  commonly  asso- 
ciated with  the  devising  of  new  methods  of  production  are  Har- 
greaves,  Arkwright,  Crompton,  Cartwright  and  "Watt.  But 
while  these  men  were  working  out  the  problems  of  their  textile 
and   power  inventions,    literally  thousands    of  other  men    were 


2  THE  RISE  OF  THE  GREAT   MANUFACTURERS 

working  with  perhaps  equal  ardor  to  solve  the  same  or  similar 
problems  of  mechanical  improvement ;  national  and  local  socie- 
ties were  organized  to  stimulate  and  reward  inventive  activity; 
and  the  government  paid  large  sums  in  recognition  of  the  work 
of  inventors  and  passed  numerous  laws  for  the  protection  of  in- 
ventions. The  period  of  the  textile  inventions  was  a  period  char- 
acterized by  what  may  be  termed  a  prevailing  spirit  of  invention. 

Interest  in  mechanical  improvement  found  expression  in 
many  ways.  One  of  its  manifestations  was  an  increase  in  the 
number  of  patents  for  inventions.  The  number  of  patents  issued 
during  the  fifteen  years  from  1760  to  1775  was  approximately 
the  same  as  the  number  issued  during  the  preceding  sixty  years. 
The  number  issued  during  the  quarter  of  a  century  from  1760  to 
1785  equaled  the  number  issued  during  the  preceding  century 
and  a  half.  ^  During  no  decade  preceding  1 760,  with  the  one  ex- 
ception of  the  years  1690-1699,  did  the  number  of  patents  rise  to 
100,  and  the  number  during  that  decade  was  only  102.  In  the 
decade  beginning  in  1760,  the  number  of  patents  granted  was 
205,  and  each  succeeding  decade  was  marked  b.y  a  very  rapid 
increase.  ^ 

The  mechanical  interests  of  the  time  found  expression  not 


^  Compiled   from   Woodcroft,   Titles   of  Patents   of   Invention,   Vol.    1. 
The  exact  figures  follow : 

Number  of  patents  1700-1760,  379;  Number  of  patents  1617-1760,  743; 

Number  of  patents  1760-1775,  370;  Number  of  patents  1760-1785,  776. 

'  Compiled   from   Woodcroft,   Titles  of  Pateiits  of  Invention,   Vol.   I. 

Following  are  the  numbers  of  patents  issued  during  the  decades  since  the 

Restoration : 

1660-1669,     31;  1730-1739,     56; 

1670-1679,     51;  1740-1749,     82; 

1680-1689,     53;  1750-1759,     92; 

1690-1699,  102;  1760-1769,  205; 

1700-1709,     22;  1770-1779,  294; 

1710-1719,     38;  1780-1789,  477. 

1720-1729,     89; 
Later  decades  also  witnessed  rapid  increases  in  patent  grants. 


THE  ERA  OF  INVENTION  3 

only  in  the  increasing  number  of  patents,  but  also  in  greater 
variety  in  the  nature  of  the  inventions.  According  to  Bennett 
Woodcroft's  classification  of  inventions  for  use  in  official  publi- 
cations, there  were  396  kinds  of  inventions  patented  during  the 
years  1700  to  1785,  and  of  these  groups,  168  were  added  during 
the  years  1760  to  1785.  ^ 

The  greater  inventive  activity  of  the  late  eighteenth  century 
is  evident  not  only  from  a  comparison  of  the  number  and  the 
variety  of  the  patents,  but  also  from  a  comparison  of  the  nature 
of  the  inventions  represented  by  the  patent  grants.  The  early 
patents  were  in  many  cases  issued  not  for  definite,  tangible  in- 
ventions, but  for  ideas  and  suggestions,  and  for  vague,  undefined 
devices  and  processes  in  some  instances  not  far  removed  from 
the  occult  arts  of  the  middle  ages.  *  During  the  period  of  in- 
creased inventive  activity,  as  well  as  before,  patents  were  issued 
for  worthless  inventions.  But  the  more  definite,  workable  nature 
of  the  patents  issued  during  the  later  period,  in  comparison  with 
the  tendency  toward  vagueness,  extravagance  and  speculation  in 
the  earlier  patents,  afl'ords  a  sharp  contrast.  This  contrast  is  to 
be  explained  in  part  by  the  general  increase  in  mechanical  and 
scientific  knowledge ;  and  in  part  by  the  more  rigorous  enforce- 
ment of  the  rules  for  submission  of  definite  specifications,  draw- 
ings and  models  in  order  to  secure  patents.  ^ 

The  increase  in  the  number  and  the  variety  of  patents  issued 
and  the  more  explicit  nature  of  the  inventions  indicate  clearly 
a  rapid  growth  of  interest  in  mechanical  improvement.     So  ap- 


'  Compiled  from  Woodcroft,  Subject-matter  Index  of  Patents  of  In- 
vention, Vol.  1. 

*  For  a  few  instances  of  such  patents,  see  Woodcroft,  Titles  of  Patents 
of  Invention,  Vol.  1,  p.  2,  patent  granted  to  Ramsey  and  Wildgosse;  p.  28, 
to  Worcester;  p.  44,  to  Becher;  p.  51,  to  Ayscoghe;  p.  52,  to  Smartfoot; 
p.  54,  to  Porter  and  White;  p.  57,  to  Williams  and  Marwood;  p.  63,  to 
Winball;  p.  69,  to  Aldersey;  p.  92,  to  Payne. 

'  Concerning  patent  law  and  practice,  see  below,  pp.  8,  9. 


4  THE  RISE  OF  THE  GREAT   MANUFACTURERS 

parent  to  the  people  of  the  time  was  this  tendency  that  it  called 
forth  in  1776  a  book  of  verse  entitled  The  Patent. "  The  follow- 
ing passage  is  a  facetious  but  none  the  less  significant  expression 
of  the  inventive  spirit  evidenced  by  the  patent  records : 

"Hail  to  the  patent !  which  enables  man 
To  vend  a  folio  or  a  warming  pan. 
This  makes  the  windlass  work  with  double  force, 
And  smoke-jacks  whirl  more  rapid  in  their  course ; 
Confers  a  sanction  on  the  doctor's  pill 
Oft  known  to  cure,  but  oft'ner  known  to  kill. 
What  man  would  scruple  to  resign  his  breath 
Provided  he  could  die  a  patent  death ! 

The  time  may  come  when  nothing  will  succeed 
But  what  a  previous  patent  hath  decreed; 
And  we  must  open,  on  some  future  day, 
The  door  of  nature  with  a  patent  key. ' ' 

The  increased  number,  variety,  and  definiteness  of  patents 
are  by  no  means  the  only  ways  in  which  the  prevailing  spirit  of 
invention  found  expression.  The  securing  of  a  patent  was  an  ex- 
pensive proceeding,  and  was  merely  the  initial  step  in  the  pro- 
tection of  the  rights  of  the  inventor.  Because  of  this  fact,  and 
of  the  further  fact  that  other  methods  of  rewarding  inventors 
were  devised,  there  was  an  immense  inventive  activity  unre- 
corded in  the  patent  office.  One  of  the  chief  purposes  of  the 
Society  for  the  Encouragement  of  Arts,  Manufactures  and  Com 
merce,  as  well  as  of  various  local  societies,  was  to  promote  me- 
chanical improvement  by  offering  premiums  as  a  substitute  for 
patent  rights.  Extensive  inventive  activity  by  men  either  care- 
less of  their  rights  under  the  patent  laws,  or  unable  to  assert  their 
claims,  will  become  apparent  in  the  discussion  of  the  work  of 

•Eeviewed  in  the  London  Magasine,  1776,  p.  383. 


THE  ERA  OP  INVENTION  5 

these  societies.  It  will  suffice  at  this  point  to  state  by  way  of  il- 
lustration that  Hargreaves  did  not  patent  his  spinning  jenny 
till  several  years  after  its  invention;  that  Crompton's  "mule" 
was  never  patented;  and  that  before  the  time  of  Hargreaves' 
jenny,  premiums  were  paid  for  four  different  machines,  none  of 
which  were  patented,  for  spinning  more  than  one  thread  at  a 
time. 

The  question  of  the  best  method  of  rewarding  inventors,  as 
well  as  other  aspects  of  popular  interest  in  mechanical  progress, 
found  frequent  expression  in  the  various  types  of  current  litera- 
ture. A  survey  of  accounts  of  this  kind  reveals  innumerable  de- 
vices, many  of  them  unpatented,  and  some  of  them  highly  suc- 
cessful. These  accounts  are  significant  because  they  show  not 
only  an  extensive  inventive  activity  but  also  a  widespread  public 
interest  in  the  subject.  The  briefest  analysis  or  enumeration  of 
popular  contemporaneous  records  having  to  do  with  inventions 
would  carry  the  discussion  afield.  It  is  necessary,  therefore,  to 
mention  only  a  few  characteristic  instances.  The  Annual  Regis- 
ter had  a  department  regularly  devoted  to  "Useful  Projects." 
In  1764  a  new  periodical,  The  Wonderful  Magazine,  devoted  to 
the  recording  of  "things  out  of  the  common  road,"  was  adver- 
tised. ^  The  Museum  Rusticum  et  Commerciale,  begun  in  1764, 
unofficially  patronized  by  the  Society  for  the  Encouragement  of 
Arts,  Manufactures  and  Commerce,  and  devoted  to  the  recording 
of  new  and  valuable  discoveries,  was  of  such  interest,  according 
to  the  editors,  tliat  "there  was  scarcely  a  newspaper  or  magazine 
in  the  kingdom"  that  had  not  reprinted  portions  of  its  contents.  * 
A  book  entitled  JVk'  Patent  has  already  been  mentioned.  Among 
the  numerous  references  to  inventions  and  inventors  in  the  liter- 
ary journals  of  the  time,  there  is  one  of  special  significance  be- 
cause of  the  light  it  throws  on  the  mechanical  interests  of  the 

'In  Hoi/d's  Evening  Post  and  British  Chronicle,  Vol.  15,  p.  320. 
'Vol.  1,  Preface;  Vol.  2,  Advertisement. 


6  THE  RISE  OF  THE  GREAT  MANUFACTURERS 

people  about  Manchester  before  the  introduction  of  cotton  fac 
tories.  This  account  is  a  sketch  of  the  life  of  Adam  Walker,  a 
self-taught  mechanic  of  the  north  of  England,  who  about  the 
middle  of  the  century  introduced  practical  education  at  Manches- 
ter, in  keeping  with  the  needs  of  "a  town  of  trade;"  gave  lec- 
tures on  mechanics  in  Manchester  and  neighboring  towns, — lec- 
tures so  popular  that  in  many  of  the  smaller  towns  buildings 
large  enough  to  accommodate  his  audiences  could  not  be  secured ; 
and  himself  invented  about  a  score  of  devices,  most  of  which 
were  never  patented.  ^  Classical  allusions,  of  great  interest  to  the 
cultivated  classes  of  the  time,  were  in  many  instances  reinter- 
preted in  the  light  of  mechanical  interests.  One  writer  even  as- 
serted that  many  pagan  gods  were  ' '  mortals  who  had  signalized 
themselves  by  their  beneficial  inventions,"  and  had  been  re- 
warded with  deification.  ^° 

Interest  in  the  question  of  rewarding  inventors  was  per- 
haps the  most  important  aspect  of  the  contemporaneous  discus- 
sions, because  of  the  reaction  in  stimulating  further  inventive  ac- 
tivity. As  early  as  1774  a  booklet  appeared  which  vigorously 
defended  the  legal  rights  of  inventors  on  the  basis  of  their  pub- 
lic value.  This  work  opposed  the  idea  of  the  superiority  of  the 
"polite  arts,"  and  asserted  that  these  are  of  much  less  value 
than  "new  inventions  and  discoveries  in  the  arts  and  sciences." 
Popular  support  of  this  view  is  evidenced  by  the  following  lines 
by  an  anonymous  rimester: 

"  'T  is  great,  't  is  wonderful,  sublime, 
No  doubt,  to  build  the  lofty  rime ! 
But,  deaf  to  what  the  poet  sings. 
Though  charm  his  muse  the  ear  of  kings, 
The  patriot  sees  more  wit  and  good  in 
The  invention  of  a  marrow  pudding." 

'European  Magazine,  Vol.  21,  pp.  411-413. 

"Edward  Goodwin  of  Sheffield,  in  Gentleman's  Magazine,  Vol.  56, 
Pt.  1,  pp.  25,  26  (1786). 


THE  ERA  OF  INVENTION  7 

It  was  urged  in  particular,  by  Kenrick  and  others,  that  in  recog- 
nition of  inventive  ability  a  more  liberal  patent  law  should  be 
enacted.  ^^ 

Of  the  various  general  discussions  of  the  proper  method  of 
rewarding  inventors,  the  most  important  was  that  of  Sir  John 
Sinclair,  President  of  the  Board  of  Agriculture.  In  1795  he 
definitely  formulated  a  plan  which  had  been  developing  for  more 
than  a  decade  as  a  result  of  his  extensive  interests,  foreign 
travel,  and  correspondence.  This  plan  was  a  remarkably  liberal 
and  comprehensive  system  for  combining  the  adequate  reward- 
ing of  inventors  with  objects  even  more  important.  He  proposed 
"a  general  agreement  among  the  powers  of  Europe  and  the 
United  States  of  America,  for  the  purpose  of  rewarding  those 
who  make  any  useful  discovery,"  and  for  taking  means  "to  have 
the  same  rapidly  extended  and  brought  to  its  ultimate  state  of 
perfection."  Each  country  was  to  set  aside  an  adequate  sum 
for  the  rewarding  of  "any  new  invention,"  which  was  thence- 
forth to  become  generally  available.  The  plan  was  to  be  carried 
out  by  a  system  of  boards  and  secretaries  cooperating  in  the 
various  countries, — a  definite  international  organization  with 
comprehensive  aims  and  powers.  So  optimistic  was  he  concern- 
ing his  plan  that  he  believed  that  such  a  system  of  international 
cooperation  for  the  promotion  of  common,  peaceful  interests 
would  tend  to  do  away  with  warfare,  and  would  promote  the 
development  of  a  new  and  wholesome  system  of  international  re- 
lations. His  attempt  to  carry  out  such  a  far-sighted  and  ideal 
policy — and  serious  attempts  were  made — were  ineffective  be- 
cause of  the  wars  and  jealousies  of  the  time.  But  his  recognition 
of  the  importance  of  inventions  and  their  far-reaching  possibili- 


"  W.  Kenrick,  An  Address  to  the  Artists  and  Manufacturers  of  Great 
Britain,  pp.  16,  32,  and  passim. 


8  THE  RISE  OF  THE  GREAT   MANUFACTURERS 

ties  is  nevertheless  significant  evidence  of  interest  in  mechanical 
progress.  ^^ 

Proposals  for  changes  in  the  methods  of  rewarding  inventors 
were  justified  bj'  the  fact  that  in  practice  much  injustice  and  in- 
equality prevailed.  To  be  sure,  the  accounts  of  persecuted  and 
ill-treated  inventors  have  been  exaggerated,  as  in  the  case  of 
Hargreaves.  "  But  inventors,  as  well  as  persons  of  other  pur- 
suits, unless  possessed  of  wealth  or  position,  not  only  had  pre- 
carious legal  rights  (as  witness  the  laws  against  debtors)  but 
found  extreme  difficulty  in  maintaining  such  rights  as  thej^ 
possessed. 

The  prevailing  view  of  the  time '  conceded  the  desirability 
of  making  special  provision  for  the  rewarding  of  the  inventor  in 
ways  other  than  by  merely  allowing  him  to  profit  b}'  the  appli- 
cation of  his  invention  to  its  intended  purpose.  Sir  John  Sin- 
clair held,  as  has  been  noted,  a  distinctly  socialized  conception 
of  inventions.  And  the  Society  for  the  Encouragement  of  Arts, 
Manufactures  and  Commerce  viewed  inventions  as  the  legitimate 
property  of  the  public.  But  even  in  these  instances  it  was  agreed 
that  special  recognition  of  inventors  in  some  form  was  desirable. 

There  were  three  principal  methods  of  rewarding  inventors : 
(1)  patents;  (2)  special  privileges  or  compensations  granted  by 
the  government;  and  (3)  private  aid,  usually  in  the  form  of  pre- 
miums and  medals  granted  by  societies. 

The  law  of  patents  then  in  force  was  the  famous  Statute  of 
Monopolies,  21  James  I,  c.  3,  sees.  5  and  6.    This  law,  which  in 

"European  Magazine,  Vol.  28,  pp.  76-78;  Sinclair,  Essays  on  Miscel- 
laneous Subjects,  pp.  381-385,  391  (London,  1802).  The  extensive  nature 
of  Sinclair's  connections  is  shown  by  his  Correspondence  (London,  1831), 
particularly  Vol.  2,  devoted  mainly  to  America  and  the  Continent.  See  also, 
for  further  discussions  of  methods  of  rewarding  inventors,  James  Peacock, 
Proposals  for  a  Magnificent  and  Interesting  Establishment,  pp.  11,  12;  »nd 
New  and  Old  Principles  of  Trade  Compared,  p.  82. 

"See  accounts  in  Baines,  History  of  the  Cotton  Manufacture,  pp.  161 
163,  189,  and  Abram,  History  of  Blackburn,  p.  209. 


THE  ERA  OF  INVENTION  9 

general  condemned  monopolies,  made  an  exception  in  the  case  of 
inventions.  Patents  for  inventions  might  be  issued  for  a  period 
of  fourteen  years.  The  principles  of  the  law  have  remained  sub- 
stantially unchanged.  Parliament  indeed  enacted  no  important 
change  even  in  the  procedure  for  granting  patents  before  the 
year  1835.  But  the  increase  of  governmental  offices  and  the  elab- 
oration of  procedure,  combined  with  the  more  exacting  require- 
ments of  the  courts  concerning  specifications,  ^*  caused  legal 
rights  to  have  precarious  value  except  in  the  cases  of  the  more 
important  inventions  in  the  hands  of  the  relatively  well-to-do. 
Estimates  of  the  cost  of  securing  a  patent  range,  so  far  as  ob- 
served, from  £80  to  £143.  The  difficulties  and  annoyances  in- 
volved in  the  proceedings  are  suggested  by  the  fact  that  in  a 
specimen  bill  forty-four  separate  items  are  listed.  The  main- 
taining of  patent  rights  was  further  complicated  by  the  neces- 
sity of  securing  separate  and  distinct  patents  for  Ireland  and 
Scotland.  ^^ 

It  is  to  be  observed  that  the  state  of  the  patent  law  and  prac- 
tice is  not  of  itself  indicative  of  increased  inventive  activity ;  but 
the  difftculty  of  asserting  patent  rights  gives  added  significance 
to  the  increase  in  the  number  of  patents  beginning  about  1760. 

There  was  an  implicit  recognition  of  this  difficulty,  as  well 
as  an  increasing  interest  in  greater  rewards  for  inventors,  mani- 
fest in  the  more  frequent  resort  to  special  governmental  grants 


"  The  vagueness  of  Arkwright  's  specifications  led  to  the  annulling  of 
his  patent.  This  case,  as  well  as  others  indicating  a  more  rigorous  ap- 
plication of  the  law,  is  discussed  in  Davies,  Collection  of  the  Most  Import- 
ant Cases  Respecting  Patents  of  Invention. 

^''Statutes  of  the  Realm,  Vol.  4,  Pt.  II,  p.  1213  (21  James  I,  c.  3, 
sees.  5,  6) ;  Robert  Frost,  Treatise  on  the  Law  and  Practice  Relating  to 
Letters  Patent  for  Inventions,  Vol.  1,  pp.  1-4;  H.  F.  Moulton,  The  Present 
Laic  and  Practice  Relating  to  Letters  Patent  for  Inventions,  p.  2;  William 
Hands,  The  Law  and  Practice  of  Patents  for  Inventions,  pp.  12-15;  W.  Ken- 
rick,  An  Address  to  the  Artists  and  Manufacturers  of  Great  Britain,  pp.  40^ 
41,  and  passim. 


10  THE  RISE  OP  THE  GREAT   MANUFACTURERS 

of  money  or  privileges.  Previous  to  the  year  1760,  such  special 
grants,  though  not  unknown,  were  extremely  rare.  One  of  the 
few  instances  was  a  reward  of  £14,000  voted  to  Sir  Thomas 
Lombe  in  1731,  not  however,  for  a  new  invention,  but  for  ma- 
chines introduced  from  Italy  for  the  manufacturing  of  silk. 
Lombe 's  petition  was  for  an  extension  of  his  patent.  This 
aroused  extensive  opposition,  and  the  matter  was  compromised 
by  the  payment  of  the  above  sum  in  recognition  of  his  great 
services  in  securing  for  England  models  of  the  machines  which 
had  been  the  basis  of  Italy's  superiority  in  the  manufacture  of 
silk.  " 

In  contrast  with  the  paucity  of  special  rewards  for  new 
inventions  before  1760,  the  period  immediately  following  abounds 
with  such  rewards.  George  III  on  several  occasions  showed  per- 
sonal interest  in  new  inventions  and  in  providing  rewards  there- 
for. But  the  main  recourse  of  inventors  seeking  public  patron- 
age was  the  House  of  Commons.  The  funds  and  privileges 
granted,  however,  were  not  entirely  in  the  nature  of  rewards. 
Many  of  the  grants  were  specifically  for  the  purpose  of  making 
experiments  and  tests. 

One  of  the  most  noteworthy  cases  of  special  governmental 
aid  was  the  exceptional  grant  of  £20,000  to  John  Harrison  for  his 
device  for  determining  longtitude  at  sea.  This  ease  is  significant 
for  a  number  of  reasons.  It  is  not  only  an  example  of  special 
grants  as  a  method  of  rewarding  inventors  but  is  also  an  illus- 
tration of  the  desire  on  the  part  of  the  government  to  foster  in- 
ventive activity ;  for  the  reward  was  offered  before  the  invention 
was  made,  and  was  paid  by  installments  as  the  device  was  de- 
veloped and  perfected.  Moreover,  the  government  conducted  ex- 
tensive experiments  and  tests  to  aid  the  inventor  and  to  verify 
his  claims.     It  is  one  of  many  instances  of  inventions  resulting 

"  Commons  Journals,  Vol.  21,  pp.  782,  795,  798,  840,  842,  855. 


THE  ERA  OP  INVENTION  11 

from  conscious,  persistent,  cooperative  effort.  As  early  as  1713  a 
law  was  passed  offering  a  reward  of  from  £10,000  to  £20,000  for 
a  practical  method  of  determining  longitude  at  sea.  In  1753 
the  reward  was  still  unassigned,  and  another  act  was  passed  "to 
render  more  effectual"  the  law  of  1713.  During  the  years  1761 
to  1780,  the  problem  led  to  the  enactment  of  no  less  than  nine 
laws,  as  well  as  to  the  making  of  a  great  variety  of  experiments 
and  the  expenditure  of  large  sums  of  money.  John  Harrison, 
who,  like  most  of  the  other  great  inventors  of  the  time,  was  of 
humble  parentage  and  meager,  self-acquired,  education,  spent 
long  years  in  his  attempt  to  solve  the  problem  defined  by  parlia- 
ment. His  efforts  culminated  in  1772  in  the  perfecting  of  a  de- 
vice which  met  the  requirements  of  the  most  rigorous  tests.  As 
a  result,  an  act  was  passed  in  1773  appropriating  £8750,  the  sum 
of  £11,250  having  been  paid  to  him  in  the  course  of  his  experi- 
ments. " 

In  addition  to  the  granting  of  general  patent  rights  and  of 
special  rewards  and  aids,  the  interest  of  the  government  in  me- 
chanical improvement  was  evidenced  by  the  passing  of  various 
laws  for  the  protection  of  machines  and  the  maintenance  of 
British  monopoly  in  their  use.  ^® 

Neither  the  granting  of  general  patent  rights  nor  of  special 
aids  was  regarded  as  an  ade(|uate  method  of  rewarding  inventors 

"  12  Anne,  St.  2,  c.  15 ;  14  George  II,  e.  39 ;  26  George  II,  c.  25 ; 
2  George  III,  c.  18;  3  George  III,  e.  14;  5  George  III,  cc.  11,  20;  10  George 
III,  c.  34;  13  George  III,  c.  77,  sec.  29;  14  George  III,  c.  66;  17  George 
III,  c.  48;  20  George  III,  c.  61.  Accounts  are  given  in  the  European  Mag- 
azine, Vol.  16,  pp.  235,  236;  in  the  Annual  Begister,  1765,  2d  part,  pp.  113- 
133,  and  1777,  2d  part,  pp.  24-26;  and  in  the  Dictionary  of  National  Biog- 
raphy, Vol.  25,  pp.  35,  36.  For  other  instances  of  parliamentary  grants  and 
royal  favor,  see  Commons  Journals,  Vol.  32,  p.  240;  Vol.  33,  pp.  534,  600, 
609,  664,  745;  Vol.  34,  pp.  382,  740,  746-748,  756;  Vol.  35,  pp.  142,  207, 
343;  Vol.  36,  pp.  30-33,  238;  Vol.  37,  pp.  367,  368,  392,  393,  422;  Vol.  40, 
pp.  613,  1024;  Vol.  47,  pp.  416,  478,  546,  762;  Universal  Magazine,  Vol.  49, 
pp.  52,  107;  European  Magazine,  Vol.  11,  p,  211;  and  Gentleman's  Maga- 
zine, Vol.  56,  Part  I,  p.  26. 

"  Concerning  these  laws,  see  below,  p.  44,  fl'. 


12  THE  RISE  OF  THE  GREAT  MANUFACTURERS 

and  stimulating  improvement.  Some  of  the  defects  of  the  pat- 
ent system  have  already  been  mentioned.  The  method  of  reward- 
ing inventors  by  special  grants  was  criticized  on  various  grounds. 
It  is  obvious  that  rewards  of  this  nature  were  unequally  dis- 
tributed, and  were  apt  to  be  the  result  not  of  merit  but  of  influ- 
ence. An  inventor  without  merit  might  secure  recognition 
through  political  agencies,  and  a  man  deserving  recognition  but 
lacking  connection  with  parliamentary  and  ministerial  forces 
was  likely  to  be  neglected.  Minor  improvements  and  devices  or 
processes  of  dubious  merit  were  at  times  the  subjects  of  pro 
longed  discussion,  while  many  of  the  most  important  inventions 
were  entirely  unnoticed.  ^* 

While  criticisms  of  special  grants  to  inventors  were  well 
founded,  it  is  nevertheless  true  that  such  grants  afford  import- 
ant evidence  of  public  interest  in  mechanical  progress  and  of  a 
desire  to  make  inventions  common  property.  As  for  the  other 
governmental  method  of  rewarding  inventors,  namely,  the  grant- 
ing of  patents,  the  vast  increase  in  the  number  and  kinds  of 
patents  is  proof,  as  has  already  been  set  forth,  of  widespread  in- 
ventive activity.  A  study  of  a  third  form  of  reward,  the  grant- 
ing of  premiums  and  medals  by  societies,  affords  evidence  alike 
of  extensive  inventive  activity  by  individuals  and  of  organized 
interest  on  the  part  of  the  public.  Rewards  by  societies  and 
patronage  by  the  government  are  alike  significant  as  indicating 
the  part  played  in  the  mechanical  transition  by  organized  social 
forces  as  contrasted  with  the  spontaneous,  uncorrected  activities 
of  individual  inventors. 

The  principal  societj'  interested  in  the  granting  of  premiums 
for  inventions  was  the  Society  Instituted  at  London  for  the  En- 

"  For  criticisms  of  special  grants  as  a  method  of  rewarding  inventors, 
see  Parliamentary  History,  Vol.  38,  pp.  311,  467-472,  538;  Parliamentary 
Begister,  Vol.  4,  pp.  358-370,  378-382,  392,  396;  W.  Kenrick,  An  Address 
to  the  Artists  and  Manufacturers  of  Great  Britain;  and  Geiitleman's  Maga- 
zine, Vol.  56,  Pt.  I,  p.  26. 


THE  ERA  OF  INVENTION  13 

couragement  of  Arts,  Manufactures  and  Commerce,  founded  in 
1754,  and  commonly  known  as  the  Society  of  Arts.  Its  pur- 
poses and  activities  were  so  characteristic  of  the  spirit  of  me- 
chanical and  material  progress  pervading  the  period  of  its  early 
history  as  to  justify  a  somewhat  detailed  account. 

The  early  history  of  the  Society  of  Arts  unquestionably 
coincided  with  a  period  of  great  inventive  activity.  The  period 
is  to  be  compared,  in  this  respect,  not  with  the  following  but 
with  the  preceding  period.  In  contrast  with  earlier  times,  the 
profusion  of  mechanical  interests  and  activities  w^as  remarkable. 
By  a  w^riter  of  the  time,  the  change  was  not  considered  as  merely 
coinciding  with  the  origin  of  the  Society  of  Arts,  but  was  attri- 
buted largely  to  the  founding  of  that  society,  which  he  charac- 
terized as  "one  of  the  most  remarkable  epochs  in  the  history  of 
the  arts."^°  This  is  of  course  an  exaggeration  of  the  society's 
influence.  But  the  work  of  the  society,  even  when  subjected  to 
a  more  critical  view,  merits  a  more  prominent  place  in  the  his- 
tory of  the  time  thaii  has  commonly  been  given  it. 

Its  organization  was  not  without  precedent.  The  Dublin 
Society,  organized  as  early  as  1731,  was  characterized  by  Lord 
Sheffield  as  "the  first  institution  of  its  kind  in  Europe."  It 
was  a  semi-official  body,  serving  as  a  sort  of  "board  of  trade, 
manufactures  and  useful  arts,"  particularly  agriculture.  It  was 
at  first  supported  by  private  subscriptions,  but  soon  secured 
parliamentary  aid.  the  usual  subsidy  granted  each  session  being 
£10,000.  Its  relation,  however,  to  invention  was  slight ;  only  in 
its  general  purpose  of  encouraging  the  useful  arts  did  it  serve 
as  a  precedent  for  the  English  society.  -^ 

The  London  society  was  organized  in  1754  by  William  Ship- 
ley.    Shipley,  realizing  the  need  of  patronage  for  the  success 

^Encyclopedia  Britannica,  3d  Ed.,  Vol.  17,  pp.  586,  587. 
"  Sheffield,    Observations    on    the    Manufactures,    Trade,    and    Present 
State  of  Ireland,  pp.  204,  260;  Young,  Tour  in  Ireland,  Vol.  2,  pp.  131-133. 


14  THE  RISE  OF  THE  GREAT   MANUFACTURERS 

of  such  a  project  at  that  time,  "found  means  to  engage  a  few 
persons  of  rank  and  fortune  to  meet  at  Peele's  Coffee  House  in 
Fleet  Street,  and  to  adopt  a  plan  for  promoting  arts  and  com- 
merce." Prominent  among  these  original  members  were  Lord 
Folkstone,  Lord  Romney,  and  Dr.  Stephen  Hales.  ^^ 

The  plan  of  the  society  was  comprehensive.  The  officers 
consisted  of  a  president,  twelve  vice-presidents,  a  secretary,  an 
assistant  secretary,  a  registrar,  and  a  collector  of  the  subscrip- 
tion money.  There  were  six  committees,  each  concerned  with  a 
special  field,  and  each,  with  one  exception  (the  committee  on  ac- 
counts), meeting  weekly.  Four  general  meetings  of  the  society 
were  held  each  year.  Candidates  for  membership  might  be 
nominated  on  recommendation  of  three  members,  and  election 
to  membership  required  a  two-thirds  vote  of  the  members  voting. 
Perpetual  membership  required  a  fee  of  twenty  guineas;  and 
subscribing  membership,  not  less  than  two  guineas.  In  1783 
there  were  481  contributing  members,  and  the  number  rapidly 
increased  thereafter.  Many  of  the  prominent  men  of  England 
were  members.  The  names  of  inventors  and  manufacturers  occur 
side  by  side  with  the  names  of  lords,  gentry  and  high  officials. 
Arkwright.  Matthew  Boulton,  and  Josiah  Wedgwood,  as  also 
"Wedgwood's  sons,  were  members,  and  Cartwright  was  at  one 
time  a  candidate  for  the  position  of  secretary  of  the  society.  ^^ 

The  nature  of  the  society's  activities  is  indicated  by  its  com- 
mittee organization  and  by  the  premiums  and  medals  offered. 


"Transactions  of  the  Society  for  the  Encouragement  of  Arts,  Manu- 
factures and  Commerce,  Vol.  1,  Introduction;  Vol.  3,  pp.  124-128;  Vol.  4, 
Preface,  pp.  xvii,  xviii  (Shipley's  portrait  forms  the  frontispiece  to  Vol.  4)  ; 
Vol.  55,  Preface;  Dossie,  Memoirs  of  AgricuHure  and  other  Oeconomical 
Arts,  Vol.  1,  p.  28;  Encyclopedia  Britannica,  3d  Ed.,  Vol.  17,  p.  587;  Wood, 
History  of  the  Boyal  Society  of  Arts,  p.  1,  ff. 

"  Transactions,  Vol.  1,  pp.  276-281,  and  lists  of  members  in  the  various 
volumes;  Anderson,  Historical  and  Chronological  Deductions  of  the  Origins 

of  Commerce,  Vol.  2,  p.  407    (Ed.  1764);    [Strickland],  Memoir  of 

Edmund  Cartwright,  p.  162. 


THE  ERA  OF  INVENTION  15 

Its  five  committees  (excluding  the  committee  on  accounts)  were 
concerned  with  (1)  correspondence  and  agriculture;  (2)  colo- 
nies, trade,  and  manufactures;  (3)  mechanics;  (4)  polite  arts; 
and  (5)  chemistry.  But  mechanical  interests  were  by  no  means 
confined  to  the  committee  on  mechanics.  The  terms  applied  to 
the  committees  were  arbitrary.  Agricultural  implements  were 
under  the  jurisdiction  of  the  committee  on  agriculture ;  and  the 
other  committees  similarly  promoted  inventions  in  their  respect- 
ive fields.  Its  interests  even  in  connection  with  "polite  arts" 
were  in  reality  quite  largely  practical.  The  term  included  de- 
signing and  other  branches  which  the  society  recognized  as  of 
great  importance  to  English  manufacturers,  branches  in  which 
there  was  special  need  of  improvement  due  to  the  superiority  of 
the  French.  The  society  was  interested  in  improvements  of 
various  kinds ;  but  its  most  noteworthy  work  was  the  promoting 
and  rewarding  of  inventive  activity.  The  principal  method  used 
was  the  bestowing  of  medals  and  premiums.  "There  should  be 
a  bank  of  generosity  to  which  such  [inventive]  genius  may  with- 
out difficulty  apply,  and  from  which,  with  certainty,  it  may  ex- 
pect the  reward  of  merit  as  well  as  a  mark  of  honor."  This  was 
the  society's  ideal,  which,  it  was  claimed,  has  "undeniably  proved 
the  surest  means  of  employing  and  applying  such  genius  to  na- 
tional benefit.  "==* 

The  wide  variety  of  the  society's  interests  in  stimulating 
and  rewarding  inventive  activity  is  evidenced  by  the  following 
list,  far  from  complete,  of  devices  or  processes  for  which  pre- 
miums were  offered  and  paid  during  its  early  years :  ^^  Plows  of 
many  types,  thistle  cutters,  scythes,  mechanical  turnip  slicers, 
drills,  threshers,  horse-hoes,  bee-hives,  and  a  large  number  of 


'*  Trans(u:tions,  Vol.  1,  pp.  27,  28,  44-49,  280,  281;  Dossie,  Memoirs, 
Vol.  1,  pp.  32-308. 

"Compiled  from  Tra-nsactions,  Vol.  1,  pp.  3-62;  and  W.  Bailey,  Ad- 
vancement of  Arts,  Manufactures  and  Commerce. 


16  THE  RISE  OF  THE  GREAT  MANUFACTURERS 

improved  processes  and  products  connected  with  agriculture; 
crucibles,  retorts,  and  numerous  devices  and  processes  in  chem- 
istry; combing  and  carding  machines,  reels,  winding  and  doub- 
ling machines,  spinning  wheels  and  spinning  machines,  looms  and 
stocking  frames,  and  many  improved  fabrics,  processes  and  de- 
signs in  the  manufacture  of  cloth;  a  method  of  measuring  dis- 
tances ;  carriages  and  minor  improvements  connected  with  them ; 
handmills,  windmills,  sawmills,  tidemills ;  hydraulic  engines ; 
diving  bells;  methods  of  floating  stranded  vessels;  compasses, 
valves,  gun  harpoons,  ventilators,  umbrellas,  locks,  augurs,  jacks, 
cranes,  pulleys,  hinges,  guages,  timepieces;  a  universal  standard 
of  weights  and  measures.  The  proportion  of  premiums  awarded 
to  premiums  offered  was  small.  In  1784,  a  typical  instance, 
premiums  were  offered  for  167  items.  The  number  of  awards 
the  following  year  was  only  twenty-two.  The  society's  purpose 
was  attained  if  its  suggestions  of  needed  improvements  were 
acted  upon,  even  if  the  resulting  invention  never  came  into  its 
possession.  During  the  years  1754  to  1782,  its  awards  totaled 
the  sum  of  £28,212,  11  s.  4  d.  A  large  proportion  of  the  awards 
were  honorary,  and  in  some  cases  pecuniary  rewards  were  re- 
turned by  inventors.  The  public-spirited  nature  of  the  society's 
work  is  indicated  by  the  fact  that  it  rewarded  inventors  who 
were  unable  to  secure  patents,  and  those,  also,  who  were  willing 
to  contribute  their  inventions  to  the  public.  Rewards  were  never 
granted  for  patented  inventions ;  and  all  machines  and  models 
for  which  premiums  or  medals  were  awarded,  as  well  as  others 
donated  to  the  society,  were  not  to  be  patented,  and  were  kept 
on  public  exhibition.  ^^ 

Indeed,  the  ultimate  purpose  of  the  society  was  not  merely 
to  promote  "inventions,  discoveres  and  improvements,"  but  also 
"the  laying  open  any  such  to  the  public."     The  repository  of 

'^Transactions,  Vol.  1,  pp.  62,  269,  270;   Vol.  2,  pp.  271-346;   Vol.  4, 
pp.  231-239;  Vol.  20,  Preface,  pp.  iv-vi. 


THE  ERA  OF  INVENTION  17 

the  society  was  open  to  the  public,  according  to  announcement 
in  1783,  every  day  except  Sunday  and  Wednesday.  It  was 
stated  that  since  material  progress  depends  ' '  on  the  improvement 
of  mechanical  engines,"  "the  society  have  from  their  institu- 
tion invariably  endeavored,  by  every  means  in  their  power,  to 
bring  forward  to  public  use  and  notice  all  such  machines  as  have 
a  tendency  to  promote  that  end."  The  models  and  machines  in 
their  repositories  have  been  ' '  open  to  the  free  and  uninterrupted 
examination  of  all  persons,"  and  from  these  exhibits  "it  is  well 
known  great  advantages  have  arisen,  as  well  to  the  ingenious 
workmen  as  to  the  learned  and  scientific  observers."  ^^ 

Evidence  of  contemporaneous  recognition  of  the  importance 
of  the  Society  of  Arts  is  abundant.  In  1765  the  city  of  Liverpool 
gave  the  societj^  £100,  and  in  the  same  year,  London  contributed 
£500  to  its  treasury.  The  popularity  of  the  Transactions  was  so 
great  that  a  third  edition  of  the  first  volume,  for  1783,  was 
printed  in  1786.  Later  volumes  also  w^ere  soon  reissued.  Com- 
mendations of  the  societj^'s  work  by  writers  of  the  time  are  ex- 
tremely numerous  and  in  tone  superlative,  as  when  Arthur 
Young  expressed  the  view  that  for  every  guinea  spent  by  "this 
most  laudable  society,"  the  country  had  been  benefited  a  thou."- 
and  pounds.  The  officers  of  the  society  w-ere  themselves  not  un- 
W'illing  to  solicit  support  on  the  basis  of  the  praise  generously 
bestowed  upon  the  society,  and  on  the  ground  of  the  public  bene- 
fits accruing  from  its  work.  Samuel  More,  the  secretary,  wrote 
that  no  nation  had  ever  received  "more  real  advantage  from  any 
public  body  whatever  than  has  been  derived  to  this  country  from 
the  rewards  bestowed  by  this  society. ' '  ^* 

Closely  connected  in  origin  and  purpose  w4th  the  national 
society  were  various  local  organizations.     The  compiler  of  the 

"  Transactions,  Vol.  1,  p.  65,  Vol.  13,  Preface,  p.  xv. 
^^  Annual  Segister,   1765,  pp.   Ill    (Chron.),  136    (Chron.)  ;   Annals  of 
Agriculture,  Vol.  1,  p.  64;  Gentleman's  Magazine,  Vol.  59,  Pt.  1,  p.  478. 


18  THE  RISE  OF  THE  GREAT   MANUFACTURERS 

Transactions  claimed  in  1783  that  "a  great  and  general  effect" 
of  the  society's  work  had  been  not  only  to  produce  mechanical 
improvements  "every  year  increasing,"  but  "to  excite  and  dif- 
fuse a  spirit  of  improvement."  Another  writer  stated  that 
"among  its  benefits  is  the  establishment  of  other  similar  bodies." 
Robert  Dossie,  writing  fourteen  years  after  the  founding  of  the 
society,  stated  that  its  aim,  ' '  to  cherish  invention  and  propagate 
intelligence  of  this  sort,"  was  being  emulated  not  only  by  many 
individuals  but  also  by  "several  country  societies."  ^^ 

Even  the  Royal  Academy  of  Arts,  founded  in  1768,  was  dis- 
tinctly influenced  by  the  Society  of  Arts.  To  the  influence  of  the 
two  organizations  has  been  attributed  the  success  of  Englishmen 
in  overcoming  their  deficiency  of  taste  and  skill  in  drawings, 
designs,  and  patterns  for  their  rapidly  developing  textile  fab- 
rics and  other  industries  in  which  they  were  previously  sur- 
passed by  the  French.  It  is  in  this  light  that  Wendeborn,  a  crit- 
ical German  observer,  discusses  the  Academy.  The  honor  of  hav- 
ing called  the  Academy  into  being  was  claimed  distinctly  by  the 
Society  of  Arts. "" 

The  Manchester  Literary  and  Philosophical  Society,  like  the 
Royal  Academy  of  Arts,  had  aims  less  practical  and  concrete 
than  those  of  the  London  society.  But  it  is  worthy  of  mention 
for  two  reasons.  Its  organization  was  influenced  by  the  success 
of  the  Society  of  Arts ;  and  its  interests  included  the  application 
of  science  to  the  promotion  of  mechanical  improvement,  particu- 
larlj"  in  the  manufacturing  enterprises  about  Manchester.  Under 
its  auspices  there  was  organized  in  1783  a  "mechanic  school," 
under  the  name  of  the  Manchester  College  of  Arts  and  Sciences. 


"Transactions,  Vol.  1,  pp.  40,  41;  Encyclopedia  Britannica,  3d  ed., 
Vol.  17,  p.  586;  Dossie,  Memoirs,  Vol.  1,  Preface,  p.  x. 

*•  Wendeborn,  View  of  England  towards  the  Close  of  the  Eighteenth 
Century,  Vol.  1,  p.  230,  Vol.  2,  pp.  194,  197;  Transactions,  Vol.  1,  pp.  46-49. 
Wendeborn  notes  also  the  organization  in  1773  at  Liverpool  of  a  Society 
for  the  Encouragement  of  Designing,  Drawing,  and  Painting. 


THE  ERA  OF  INVENTION  19 

The  founders  of  the  school  hoped  to  make  it  "a  kind  of  oracle, 
which  those  might  consult  who  were  engaged  in  mechanical  im- 
provements, and  who  might  here,  at  once,  gain  that  information 
which  it  might  cost  them  months  and  years  to  obtain  by  their 
own  unassisted  efforts."  The  influence  of  the  London  society 
appeared  in  a  plan  for  a  repository  for  the  exhibition  of  ma- 
chines and  models  of  all  sorts,  particularly  in  textile  manufac- 
turing. But  the  plan,  though  credited  by  the  founders  to  the 
London  society,  was  even  more  ambitious  and  far-reaching.  In 
the  first  place,  there  was  to  be  not  merely  an  exhibit  of  machines 
and  models,  but  accompanjdng  instruction  in  mechanical  prin- 
ciples. In  the  second  place,  instead  of  having  an  exhibit  in  one 
place  only,  it  was  proposed  that  such  a  "mechanic  school,"  with 
an  exhibit  and  instructors,  should  be  established  "in  every  large 
to^\Ti,  and  particularly  in  the  center  of  every  important  manu- 
facture." This  plan  was  proposed  in  1782.  As  a  result,  the  Col- 
lege of  Arts  and  Sciences  was  founded  the  next  year.  The  of- 
ficers of  the  Literary  and  Philosophical  Society  were  governors 
of  the  College.  The  plan  of  1782  was  altered,  and  certain  fea- 
tures of  a  less  practical  or  technical  nature  were  adopted,  but  im- 
portant elements  of  the  original  proposals  were  included,  the 
principal  aim  being  the  investigation  of  physical  and  chemical 
sciences  and  their  application  to  improvements  in  arts  and  manu- 
factures. " 

A  society  similar  to  that  at  Manchester,  namely,  the  Liter- 
ary and  Philosophical  Society  of  Newcastle,  was  founded  near 
the  end  of  the  century,  and  was  devoted  largely  to  "the  scientific 
stud}'  and  utilization  of  the  two  great  natural  products  of  this 
part  of  the  country,  coal  and  lead,"  to  "the  introduction  of  me- 


"  Memoirs  of  the  Manchester  Literary  and  Philosophical  Society,  Vol. 
1,  pp.  X,  80-89,  Vol.  2,  pp.  16-29,  42-46;  and  a  circular  of  the  "College  of 
Arts  and  Sciences  instituted  at  Manchester,  June  6,  1783,"  dated  July  9, 
1783. 


20  THE  RISE  OF  THE  GREAT   MANUFACTURERS 

chanical  and  other  improvements,"  and  to  "the  establishment  ol 

such  other  manufactures  as  are peculiarly  adapted  to  this 

neighborhood."  '* 

The  various  local  societies  devoted  specifically  to  the  en- 
couragement of  agriculture,  manufactures  and  useful  arts  afford 
further  evidence  of  the  spirit  of  material  progress  powerfully 
stimulated  by  the  national  society.  One  of  the  earliest  of  these 
societies  was  observed  by  Arthur  Young  in  Lancashire  during 
his  northern  tour.  It  met  regularly  at  Manchester,  and  like  the 
London  society,  offered  premiums  of  various  kinds.  To  its  influ- 
ence. Young  attributed  much  of  the  progressive  spirit  there  pre- 
vailing. ^' 

The  year  1777  witnessed  the  origin  of  the  "Society  Insti- 
tuted at  Bath  for  the  Encouragement  of  Agriculture,  Arts,  Man- 
ufactures and  Commerce,"  almost  identical  in  name,  it  will  be 
observed,  with  the  London  society.  It  was  organized  for  the 
counties  of  Somerset,  Wilts,  Gloucester  and  Dorset  and  the  city 
of  Bristol.  It  offered  premiums,  largely  for  experimental  im- 
provements in  agriculture  and  the  invention  of  implements:  and 
it  engaged  in  various  activities  of  such  importance  as  to  lead  at 
length  to  the  publication  of  a  series  of  Letters  and  Papers,  some- 
what similar  to  the  Transactions  of  the  society  at  London.  ^* 

The  activities  of  a  similar  society  at  Odiham  in  Hampshire 
included  experimental  farming  as  well  as  the  awarding  of  pre- 
miums, and  the  society's  interests  included  manufacturing  as 

"Plan  of  the  Literary  and  Fhilosophical  Society  of  Newcastle,  pp.  5-7. 

"Young,  Six  Months'  Tour  through  the  North  of  England,  Vol.  3, 
p.  194,  ff ;  To  the  President of  the  Agriculture  Society  at  Manches- 
ter.    An  address  by  Thomas  B.  Bayley,  1776. 

**  Although  the  London  Society  did  not  begin  the  publication  of  its 
Transactions  until  1783,  it  had  previously  issued  various  premium  books  and 
other  publications,  and  had  secured  wide  publicity  by  means  of  the  press 
and  special  series  under  its  patronage.  Concerning  the  society  at  Bath, 
see  Pules  and  Orders  of  the  Society  Instituted  at  Bath,  etc. ;  Letters  and 
Papers,  Vol.  1;  and  the  Annual  Eegister,  1789,  p.  72  (2d  part). 


THE  ERA  OP  INVENTION  21 

well  as  agriculture.  An  interesting  phase  of  its  work  was  the 
buying  of  improved  seeds  and  implements,  and  their  resale,  to 
non-members  as  well  as  members,  at  net  cost,  ' '  in  order  to  make 
the  use  of  them  more  common."  ^^ 

Various  similar  societies  are  mentioned  more  or  less  prom- 
inently in  the  press  of  the  time,  as  the  Lewes,  Leicester,  Durham, 
Kent,  South  Devon,  East  Riding  of  York,  and  Melford  societies. 
A  writer  in  1781  observed  the  prevalence  of  such  organizations, 
supported,  he  stated,  like  the  London  society,  "with  such  liber- 
ality "  as  to  promise  far-reaching  results.  ^* 

In  view  of  the  importance  of  the  transition  to  mechanical 
production  in  the  textile  industries  in  relation  to  the  rise  of  the 
new  type  of  manufacturers,  the  connection  of  the  Society  of  Arts 
with  the  invention  of  the  textile  machines  forms  a  pertinent  in- 
quiry. " 

Hargreaves'  spinning  jenny  is  thought  to  have  been  invent- 
ed in  1764,  but  was  not  patented  till  1770.  Arkwright's  device 
was  patented  in  1769.  The  Society  of  Arts  early  offered  prem- 
iums for  improvements  in  the  spinning  wheel,  but  in  1760  they 
"carried  their  speculation  further,"  wrote  Robert  Dossie  in 
1768.  "They  offered  a  premium  for  the  best  invention  of  a  ma- 
chine that  would  spin  six  threads  of  flax,  cotton,  wool,  or  silk, 
and  require  only  one  person  to  work  and  attend  it. ' '  The  prem- 
iums offered  in  that  year  were  £40  for  the  best  machine,  and  £20 
for  the  next  best.  In  1761  the  premiums  were  raised  to  £50  and 
£25 ;  and  in  1763,  to  £100  and  £50.  That  the  idea  was  familiar 
to  members  of  the  societj'  before  the  invention  of  the  spinning 
jenny  and  the  water  frame  is  shown  by  contemporaneous  state- 

"""Annols  of  Agriculture,  Vol.  2,  pp.  425,  426;  Vol.  3,  pp.  231-239,  304, 
ff,  481-490;  Vol.  4,  pp.  195-197,  321,  322;  Vol.  5,  pp.  286,  287. 

^Annual  Eegister,  1781,  p.  104  (2d  part). 

"  Such  an  inquiry  is  particularly  desirable  because  of  the  fact  that 
even  careful  students  of  these  inventions  have  often  ignored  the  work  of  the 
society,  and  have  in  some  cases  been  misinformed  concerning  it. 


22  THE  RISE  OF  THE  GREAT   MANUFACTURERS 

ments  of  Robert  Dossie,  who  discussed  the  views  of  some  of  the 
members  concerning  the  spinning  machine  patented  by  Lewis 
Paul  in  1738.  These  members,  according  to  Dossie,  feared  that 
mechanical  resources  had  been  exhausted  in  the  expensive  at- 
tempt to  bring  this  machine  to  perfection.  And  yet,  because  of 
the  pressing  need  of  a  better  method  of  spinning,  the  society,  at 
three  different  times,  and  with  increasing  rewards,  published  its 
proposals  calling  the  attention  of  inventors  throughout  the  coun- 
try to  the  nature  and  urgency  of  the  problem.  ^* 

Nor  were  the  society's  efforts  without  results.  On  March 
25,  1761,  before  a  joint  meeting  of  the  committees  on  manufac- 
tures and  mechanics,  John  Webb  operated  a  device  for  spinning 
two  threads  and  reeling  at  the  same  time.  The  committee 
awarded  him  the  sum  of  £20.  On  the  same  day,  Thomas  Perren 
received  a  reward  for  a  wheel  with  which,  as  with  Webb's  de- 
vice, one  person  could  spin  two  threads  at  one  time.  The  com- 
mittee reported  that  "it  had  been  used  with  success."  In  April 
of  1762,  Thomas  Perren  received  another  premium  for  a  wheel 
for  spinning  coarse  linen.  This  kind  of  spinning  had  required 
two  persons,  "one  to  draw  out  the  flax  or  hemp,  and  the  other 
to  turn  the  twisting  wheel."  Perren 's  wheel  not  only  required 
only  one  operator  but  twisted  the  thread  much  more  accurately. 
In  1763  George  Buckley  presented  an  invention  which  in  ac- 
cordance with  the  societj-'s  proposal,  spun  six  threads  at  a  time 
and  was  operated  by  a  single  person.     The  committee  found  the 

"Dossie,  Memoirs,  Vol.  1,  pp.  96-98;  Transactions,  Vol.  1,  p.  33.  See 
also  Mantoux,  La  Bevolution  Industrielle,  pp.  207,  208.  Mantoux's  thor- 
ough and  comprehensive  work  is  here  in  error.  He  states  that  the  society 
had  in  view  ' '  not  the  construction  of  a  spinning  machine — the  idea  did  not 
enter  the  minds  of  its  members — but  only  an  improvement  of  the  wheel. ' ' 
Obviously  the  exact  offer  of  prizes  by  the  society  escaped  his  notice. 
Baines  in  his  History  of  the  Cotton  Manufacture  also  fails  to  note  the  vital 
distinction  between  a  machine  and  a  mere  improvement  in  the  wheel  made 
by  the  society  in  its  proposals  (p.  154).  Even  Wood's  excellent  History  of 
the  Royal  Society  of  Arts  (pp.  '257,  258)  is  here  in  error. 


THE  ERA  OF  INVENTION  23 

machine  imperfect,  but  possessed  of  merit,  and  it  was  adjudged 
capable  of  improvement.  To  encourage  the  inventor  in  perfect- 
ing it,  the  committee  awarded  him  twenty-five  guineas.  On 
April  11,  1764,  William  Harrison  secured  an  award  of  £50  for  a 
device  which,  though  enabling  the  operator  to  spin  only  two 
threads  at  a  time,  was  regarded  as  having  great  merit,  both  by 
the  society  and  by  the  press.  The  Annual  Register  referred  to  it 
as  "a  masterly  improvement"  which,  if  generally  introduced, 
would  greatly  benefit  the  nation  and  ' '  soon  increase,  by  one-third 
perhaps,  the  number  of  our  most  useful  hands. ' '  For  minor  im- 
provements in  the  ordinary  wheel  various  premiums  were 
awarded.  ^^ 

The  attempt  of  the  Society  of  Arts  to  solve  the  problem  of 
mechanical  spinning  was  but  one  of  many  measures  it  undertook 
to  improve  textile  manufacturing.  The  catalog  of  machines  and 
models  on  exhibit  in  1783,  and  published  in  the  first  volume  of 
the  Transactions,  includes  a  variety  of  inventions.  In  addition 
to  several  other  improvements  in  spinning,  there  are  listed  an 
invention  for  combing,  three  machines  for  winding  and  doubling, 
three  machines  for  winding  silk,  four  looms,  including  two 
stocking  frames,  and  certain  other  devices.  The  inventors  of  the 
improved  stocking  frames,  in  1765  and  1766,  each  received  £100; 
and  the  invention  of  1766  was  regarded  as  of  such  importance 
that  "a  considerable  body"  of  manufacturers  rewarded  the  in- 
ventor by  a  subscription.  *° 

It  is  to  be  observed  from  the  preceding  statements  that  the 
society  attempted,  with  some  measure  of  success,  to  solve  the 
problem  of  mechanical  spinning  before  the  time  of  Hargreaves. 
In  1783,  two  years  before  Cartwright's  first  power-loom  patent. 


^^  W.  Bailey,  Advancement  of  Arts,  Manufactures  and  Commerce,  pp. 
195-202;  Annual  Eegister,  1764,  pp.  66,  67  (Chron.)  ;  Museum  Rusticum 
et  Commerciale,  Vol.  4,  pp.  72,  73. 

**  Transactions,  Vol.  1,  pp.  314-316;  Dossie,  Memoirs,  pp.  136,  137. 


24  THE  RISE  OF  THE  GREAT   MANUFACTURERS 

the  society  offered  premiums  for  the  solution  of  the  problem  of 
mechanical  weaving.  Its  offer  was  continued  during  the  two  suc- 
ceeding years.  Even  before  this  proposal  was  made,  the  society's 
earlier  premiums,  according  to  its  own  claims,  had  produced 
"very  extraordinary  improvements  in  the  loom,"  the  improve- 
ments in  the  stocking  frame  probably  being  referred  to.  *^ 

The  influence  of  the  society  in  bringing  about  the  transition 
to  mechanical  production  in  the  textile  industries  cannot  be  es- 
timated with  accuracy.  The  editor  of  the  Transactions  (1783) 
believed,  though  he  did  not  positively  assert,  that  ' '  the  great  im- 
provements in  spinning,  which  have  taken  place  within  twenty 
years  in  these  kingdoms,  particularly  in  the  cotton  works  in  Lan- 
cashire, Derbyshire,  Nottinghamshire,  etc.,  are  to  be  assigned  to 
the  premiums  offered  and  paid  by  this  society. ' '  "  Such  a  view 
is  of  course  unverifiable.  Indeed,  the  evidence  justifies  the  con- 
clusion that  the  work  of  the  society,  though  important,  was  but 
one  of  a  number  of  manifestations  of  a  verj-  general  interest  in 
the  improvement  of  the  instruments  of  production. 

The  facts  of  the  case  abundantly  warrant  the  statement  that 
the  people  of  the  time  were  extensiveh'  interested  in  mechanical 
improvement.  Men  were  stirred  hy  a  keen  sense  of  change  and 
readjustment  reaching  to  the  material  foundations  of  society. 
The  general  aim,  which  constituted  the  first  phase  of  the  pre- 
vailing spirit  of  invention,  was  to  bring  about  a  more  effective 
utilization  of  the  material  environment.  To  that  end,  as  the 
second  phase,  men  devised  new  instruments  and  processes.  The 
final  phase  was  the  application  of  these  inventions  to  productive 
enterprises. 

The  mechanical  revolution  was  not  the  work  of  a  few  indi- 
viduals frequently  opposed  and  unrewarded ;  it  was  rather  the 
creation  of  social  forces  finding  expression,  to  be  sure,  in  the 

'^Transactions,  Vol.  1,  pp.  32,  217,  218;  Vol.  2,  p.  338;  Vol.  3,  p.  292. 
*»  Transactions,  Vol.  1,  pp.  32,  33. 


THE  ERA  OF  INVENTION  25 

work  of  individuals,  but  even  more  significantly  in  governmental 
patronage  and  in  organized,  cooperative  activities.  The  men  who 
grasped  the  new  machines  and  by  means  of  them  attained  wealth 
and  power  in  a  newly  forming  industrial  society — the  great  man- 
ufacturers— were  utilizing  instruments  which  were  in  their  ori- 
gin distinctly  social. 


CHAPTER  II 

The  Economic  Basis  of  the  New  Industrial  Group 

The  preceding  discussion  has  viewed  the  great  inventions  as 
the  natural  outcome  of  a  remarkable  and  widespread  outburst  of 
inventive  interest  and  activity.  The  great  manufacturers  in  a 
few  cases  contributed  personally  to  the  stock  of  new  inventions, 
but  in  most  instances  they  merely  utilized  the  devices  of  other 
men — of  men  w^ho  labored  not  so  much  because  of  hope  of  reward 
from  the  manufacturers  for  the  use  of  their  devices  as  because  of 
the  inspiration  of  the  prevailing  spirit  of  invention. 

These  new  machines  constituted  the  instruments  of  the 
power  of  the  new  industrial  class.  The  industrial  value  inherent 
in  the  new  machines  was  of  course  the  result  of  their  productive 
and  competitive  power.  This  is  an  obvious  fact — so  obvious,  in- 
deed, that  its  importance  has  perhaps  not  been  duly  recognized. 
To  the  people  of  the  time,  the  fact  was  far  from  obvious  or  com- 
monplace, nor  was  its  importance  without  recognition. 

By  putting  oneself  in  the  place  of  a  contemporary  observer, 
and  by  remembering,  too,  that  the  eighteenth  century  mind  was 
markedly  rational  and  restrained,  we  may  the  more  readily  per 
ceive  the  significance  of  the  superlatives  applied  to  the  new  in- 
ventions. They  are  described  as  "great  and  extraordinary;" 
"most  wonderful;"  "astonishing;"  "amazing;"  "almost  mirac- 
ulous;" "unparalleled  in  the  annals  of  the  world."  Their  ef- 
fect is  beyond  description,  but  is  likened  to  a  sudden  explosion. 
Thej'  have  reached  an  "incredible"  perfection,  with  productive 
value  "beyond  the  powers  of  calculation."  They  give  a  facility 
to  labor  "scareelv  conceivable."     Thev  have  laid  "the  founda- 


THE  ECONOMIC  BASIS  27 

tions  of  a  very  extended  commerce, ' '  and  their  effect  on  industry 
has  been  progress  "rapid  beyond  example."  The  transforma- 
tion is  described  by  various  writers  as  a  "revolution."  They 
have  enabled  the  cotton  industry  to  make  "a  gigantic  stride," 
to  attain  an  "enormous  height,"  and  to  achieve  a  "progressive 
and  astonishing  increase."  As  a  result  of  "ingenious  machin- 
ery," the  cotton  industrj^  "has  burst  forth  as  it  were,  on  the 
country  in  a  moment,  giving  a  spring  at  the  same  time  to  the 
industry  of  the  people,  unexampled  in  the  annals  of  the  world." 
The  inventions  have  caused  Manchester  goods  "to  spread  in  ten 
thousand  forms  and  colors,  not  only  in  these  kingdoms,  but  over 
all  Europe;  and  even  into  distant  continents."  They  are  ex- 
pected to  produce  "great  changes in  the  appearance  of 

the  civilized  world,"  and  the  magnitude  of  their  benefits  "can 
scarcely  be  estimated."  The  "discoveries  and  improvements" 
of  the  early  years  of  George  Ill's  reign  "diffuse  a  glory  over 
this  country  unattainable  by  conquest  or  dominion,"  and  prom- 
ise to  "stamp  a  lustre"  on  his  Majesty's  reign  "to  the  latest 
generations. ' '  *' 

Such  are  some  of  the  terms  of  unmeasured  praise  recurring 
in  the  writings  of  the  time  in  recognition  of  the  productive  value 
of  the  new  machines.     Most  writers  contented  themselves  with 

*^  Annals  of  Agriculture,  Vol.  9,  pp.  286,  502,  Vol.  10,  pp.  253,  281,  579, 
Vol.  12,  pp.  513,  514;  European  Magazine,  Vol.  11,  pp.  364,  367,  Vol.  20, 
p.  216;  Gentleman's  Magazine,  Vol.  57,  Pt.  1,  p.  465;  Transactions  (of  the 
Society  of  Arts),  Vol.  1,  pp.  34,  35;  Encyclopedia  Britannica,  3d  ed..  Vol. 
5,  pp.  488,  489,  Vol.  10,  Art.  Manchester ;  Chambers'  Encyclopedia,  Dedi- 
cation, Vol.  1,  pp.  i,  ii  (1786)  ;  Life  of  Bobert  Owen,  Vol.  1,  p.  52;  J.  Aikin, 
Description  of  the  Country  from  thirty  to  forty  miles  round  Manchester, 
pp.  172,  174;  T.,  Letters  on  the  Utility  and  Policy  of  Employing  Machines 
to  Shorten  Labor,  pp.  4,  9;  Netv  and  Old  Principles  of  Trade  Compared, 
pp.  32,  33;  T.  Gisborne,  An  Enquiry  into  the  Duties  of  Men,  p.  551;   [Og- 

den],  A  Description  of  Manchester by  a  Native  of  the  Town,  p.  90; 

An  Important  Crisis  in  the  Calico  and  Muslin  Manufactory,  p.  1  (quoted 
by  Mantoux,  La  Revolution  Industrielle,  p.  248)  ;  Anderson,  Historical  and 
Chronological  Deduction  of  the  Origin  of  Commerce,  ed.  1789,  Vol.  4,  pp. 
705,  706. 


28  THE  RISE  OF  THE  GREAT  MANUFACTURERS 

indefinite  exclamations  concerning  the  nature  of  the  transforma- 
tion, but  some  attempted  definite  statements  or  estimates. 
Crompton's  machine  often  carried  150  spindles  and  drew  weft 
"to  an  exact  fineness  up  to  150  hanks  in  the  pound."  A  tourist 
in  the  north  of  England  wrote  of  the  "incredible  circumstance" 
of  one  pound  of  cotton  having  been  spun  by  machinery  into  356 
hanks,  each  hank  containing  840  yards,  a  total  length  of  169.9 
miles.  He  adds  that  to  enumerate  the  various  kinds  of  cotton 
goods  then  made  "would  be  to  count  the  sands  of  the  sea."  An- 
other writer  marvels  at  the  fact  that  "with  one  great  water 
wheel,  above  4000  threads  of  cotton  yarn  are  spun  at  once,  of 
which  the  finest  muslins  are  manufactured."  A  manufacturer 
estimated  in  1791  that  by  means  of  machines,  "ability  to  spin 
was  increased  an  hundred  fold ' '  in  twenty  years.  ** 

The  exact  extent  of  the  increase  of  productive  power  cannot 
be  ascertained.  The  increase  was  by  no  means  uniform,  nor  was 
it  limited  to  a  given  period  or  to  a  given  process  or  branch  of 
manufacture.  A  modern  estimate  for  the  spinning  of  cotton 
yarn  of  forty  hanks  to  the  pound  is  to  the  effect  that  in  1812 
labor  was  fourteen  times  more  productive  than  in  1779  (a  vast 
increase  of  productive  power  already'  having  taken  place),  nine 
times  more  productive  than  in  1784,  and  four  times  more  pro- 
ductive than  in  1799.  "^ 

From  the  point  of  view  of  accuracy,  the  value  of  such  esti- 
mates, either  contemporaneous  or  recent,  is  extremely  question- 
able. Indeed,  to  the  writers  of  the  time,  the  extent  of  increased 
productive  power  appeared  to  be  measureable  not  so  much  by  the 
perfection  of  mechanism  and  the  resulting  enlargement  of  out- 


**  Aikin,  Description  of  the  Country Bound  Manchester,  pp.  172, 

174;  European  Magazine,  Vol.  20,  p.  216;  Anderson,  Historical  and  Chro- 
nological Deduction  of  the  Origin  of  Commerce,  ed.  1789,  Vol.  4,  pp.  705, 
706;  H.  Wansey,  Wool  Encouraged  without  Exportation,  p.  67. 

«  T.  Ellison,  The  Cotton  Trade  of  Great  Britain,  p.  55, 


THE  ECONOMIC  BASIS  29 

put.  as  hy  the  rapid  growth  of  those  industries  in  which  the 
labor-saving  devices  were  being  used. 

It  was  estimated  that  the  income  from  cotton  manufactur- 
ing, including  wages,  increased  from  £200,000  in  1768  to 
£7,000,000  in  1788.  The  gross  value  of  cotton  goods,  as  late  as 
1781,  was  £2.000,000,  while  in  1787  it  had  increased  to 
£7,500,000.  In  the  processes  of  manufacture,  the  value  of  the 
cotton  was  increased  lOOO^'f  to  5000^c.  In  1769,  not  more  than 
50,000  wheels  were  employed  in  spinning  cotton ;  twenty  years 
later,  the  number  of  spindles  was  nearly  2,000,000.  The  cotton 
spinning  machinery  in  operation  in  1789  could  spin  an  amount 
equal  to  the  output  of  one  million  hands  with  the  spinning  wheel. 
An  estimate  of  the  number  actually  employed  in  the  factories  for 
spinning  cotton  in  1788  was  110.000,  almost  half  of  the  number 
being  children.  On  this  basis,  the  productive  power  of  labor  in 
spinning  was  increased  by  means  of  the  improved  machinery 
more  than  ninefold.  The  figures  are  probably  exaggerated;  but 
since  the  tendency  to  exaggerate  applied  to  both  sets  of  figures, 
the  proportion  would  remain  about  the  same.  In  the  view  of  one 
writer,  "the  progressive  and  astonishing  increase  of  this  manu- 
facture will  be  best  explained"  by  the  recent  four-fold  increase 
of  cotton  imports,  which  in  1787  amounted  to  22,000,000 
pounds.  *^ 

•*  Aikin,  Description  of  the  Countr^t Bound  Manchester,  p.  178, 

ff.  (including  extensive  quotations  from  An  Important  Crisis  in  the  Calico 
and  Muslin  Manufactory  in  Great  Britain  Explained)  ;  Annals  of  Agricul- 
ture, Vol.  12,  pp.  .513-.520;  Encyclopedia  Briiannica,  3(i  ed..  Vol.  5,  Art. 
Cotton  (written  about  1790 — see  Bibliography).  The  figures  given  in  An 
Important  Crisis  were  used  not  only  by  Aikin  but  also  to  some  extent  by 
the  other  writers  here  cited.  See  critical  note  concerning  this  work  in  S.  J. 
Chapman's  article  on  Cotton  Manufacture  in  the  11th  edition  of  the  Ency- 
clopedia Britannica,  Vol.  7,  p.  28-5.  It  is  not  maintained  that  the  figures 
cited  above  are  accurate,  nor  did  the  writers  themselves  pretend  an  exact- 
ness of  information.  But  there  is  significance  in  the  fact  that  important 
writers  of  the  time  gave  credence  to  the  estimates  in  an  attempt  to  state 
more  definitely  the  extent  of  the  remarkable  growth  of  industry  due  to  the 
new  methods. 


30  THE  RISE  OF  THE  GREAT   MANUFACTURERS 

The  rapid  growth  of  industry  in  the  new  manufacturing 
centers  was  accompanied  by  a  general  economic  expansion. 
Further  evidences  of  the  remarkable  productive  power  and  value 
of  the  new  machines  were  observed  by  the  people  of  the  time  in 
the  rapid  increase  of  wealth  and  growth  of  population  resulting 
from  their  use,  together  with  the  shifting  of  wealth  and  popula- 
tion to  the  north  of  England. 

The  effect  of  the  inventions  on  Manchester  and  the  surround- 
ing region  was  a  subject  of  frequent  comment  and  marvel.  An 
indication  of  the  change  is  to  be  found  in  the  contrast  between 
the  accounts  in  the  second  and  third  editions  of  the  Encyclopedia 
Britannica.  The  article  on  Lancashire  in  the  second  edition, 
published  as  late  as  1780,  mentioned  in  detail  the  streams  of  the 
shire,  stating  that  the  region  was  thoroughly  watered,  but  other- 
wise the  only  significance  assigned  to  the  streams  was  to  the  ef 
feet  that  one  of  them  "is  noted  for  producing  the  fattest  eels  in 
England."  The  article  on  Manchester  makes  no  mention  of  in- 
ventions, and  merely"  states  that  the  town  is  prosperous  and  has 
"several  curious  manufactures  known  at  London  by  the  name 
of  Manchester  goods."  In  the  article  on  Lancashire  in  the  third 
edition,  there  is  a  vivid  picture  of  the  industrial  processes  going 
on  along  the  rivers  and  canals  of  the  region.  The  article  on 
Manchester  *'  describes  the  rapid  growth  of  the  city  in  wealth, 
industry  and  population.  It  is  estimated  that  the  city  trebled 
its  population  in  fifty  years,  the  immediately  preceding  years  in 
particular  having  witnessed  the  building  of  innumerable  houses 
and  a  rapid  congestion  of  population,  which  is  estimated  at 
68,580.  The  city  was  remodeled,  and  the  new  streets  were  "spa- 
cious and  airy ; ' '  2,000  street  lamps  were  installed  and  nearly 
two  hundred  watchmen  were  employed  by  the  city.  It  is  esti- 
mated that  20.000  of  its  population  were  employed  in  the  fac- 

"  From  internal  evidence  it  is  ascertained  that  this  article  was  written 
in  1792.     See  Bibliography. 


THE  ECONOMIC  BASIS  31 

tories  connected  with  the  cotton  industry.  The  remarkable  pro- 
gress of  the  city  is  specifically  credited  to  "the  happy  concur- 
rence of  ingenuity  and  industry"  and  "the  astonishing  improve- 
ments daily  making  in  its  numerous  manufactures." 

The  rate  of  increase  of  population  is  not  definitelj'  ascer- 
tainable. That  it  was  extremely  rapid  is  evidenced  by  the  fol- 
lowing vital  statistics*"  comparing  the  years  1765-1767  with  the 
years  1783-1785 : 

Average  annual  number  of  christenings,  1765-67 900 

Average  annual  number  of  christenings,  1783-85  1838 

Average  annual  number  of  marriages,  1765-67 367 

Average  annual  number  of  marriages,  1783-85 807 

Average  annual  number  of  burials,  1765-67 811 

Average  annual  number  of  burials,  1783-85 1468 

A  tourist  in  1791  ventured  to  estimate  the  population  of 
Manchester  as  having  doubled  in  thirty  years,  but  even  this  in- 
crease had  fallen  far  short  of  the  increase  of  wealth — the  city 
has  been  "enriched  by  the  cotton  manufactory  beyond  the  pow- 
ers of  calculation."  To  another  observer,  the  "prodigious  num- 
bers of  people"  employed  there  is  "almost  incredible."*^  The 
growth  of  the  place  is  further  evidenced  by  data  in  contempor- 
aneous city  directories.  During  the  transition,  several  direc- 
tories were  published,  including  the  years  1773,  1781,  1788,  and 
1794.  The  number  of  names  of  "principal  inhabitants"  (such 
alone  were  included)  in  1773  was  1530;  in  1781,  1920;  in  1788, 
2580;  and  in  1794,  5444.  Probable  variations  in  the  proportion 
of  "principal  inhabitants"  to  the  total  population  lessen  the 
value  of  the  figures.  Perhaps  more  significant  is  the  increase  in 
the  number  of  thoroughfares  listed.     The  number  of  thorough- 


"  Tn  Manchester  Memoirs,  Vol.  3,  pp.  163-167  (compiled  by  Thomas 
Henry,  F.  R.  S.). 

*^  European  Magazine,  Vol.  20,  p.  216;  G.  A.  Walpole,  New  British 
Traveller,  p.  470. 


32  THE  RISE  OP  THE  GREAT   MANUFACTURERS 

fares  included  in  the  directory  of  1773  was  167 ;  1781,  197 ;  1788. 
260;  and  1794,  about  600.  The  number  given  for  1794  followed 
an  extensive  remodeling  of  the  city,  and  the  statement  is  made 
that  61  of  the  streets  had  been  "laid  out  but  not  built  upon." 
Before  the  remodeling  of  the  cit}-,  the  tendency  seems  to  have 
been  to  concentrate  the  new  population  on  the  existing  thorough- 
fares ;  afterwards,  a  tendency  toward  dispersion  naturally  ex- 
isted, ^o 

The  growth  of  the  city  was  not  entirely  the  result  of  the 
new  inventions;  but  their  preponderant  influence  was  recog- 
nized throughout  the  country,  and  particularly  at  Manchester. 
The  general  view  was  expressed  by  one  of  Manchester's  leading 
citizens,  the  Rev.  Dr.  Thomas  Barnes,  when  he  spoke  of  Man- 
chester as  a  town  "the  opulence,  and  even  the  very  existence  of 
which,  depends  on  manufactures,  and  these  again  upon  arts,  ma- 
chinery, and  invention."     Again,  we  read  that  if  it  were  not 

for  ' '  the  engines  for  carding  and  spinning  cotton  wool the 

trade  of  this  countr\'  [the  region  of  Manchester]  could  never 
be  carried  on  to  any  great  extent."  Another  writer  even  more 
explicitly'  asserted  the  relation  between  invention  and  industrial 
growth.  The  success  of  the  attempts  "to  substitute  mechanical 
for  human  power,"  by  making  production  cheaper,  more  expe- 
ditious and  more  perfect,  "has  expanded  the  villages  of  Lan- 
cashire into  towns  next  to  the  metropolis."  ^^ 

The  effect  of  mechanical  power  at  Manchester  was  remark- 
able; so  also  was  its  influence  at  Birmingham  and  in  the  regions' 


""  Compiled  from  Directories  as  quoted  and  described  in  John  Har- 
land 's  Collectanea  Belating  to  Manchester  and  Its  Neighborhood,  pp.  119- 
154   (Vol.  68  of  Chetham  Society  Publications). 

"Manchester  Memoirs,  Vol.  1,  p.  89;  Anmial  Register,  1779,  pp.  228, 
229  (Chron.)  ;  Annals  of  Agriculture,  Vol.  9,  pp.  534,  535.  See  also  the 
emphatic  protest  of  the  Lancashire  justices  in  1779  against  the  riots  of  that 
year,  on  the  ground  of  Lancashire's  dependence  on  the  new  machines:  An- 
nual Register,  1779,  p.  233  (Chron.)  ;  Gentleman's  Magazine,  Vol.  49,  p.  609. 


THE  ECONOMIC  BASIS  33 

surrounding  these  cities,  in  Staffordshire,  and  at  Liverpool,  the 
commercial  metropolis  of  the  regions  undergoing  industrial 
transformation.  But  the  iron  and  pottery  industries  experienced 
a  much  slower  progress ;  and  moreover,  the  progress  in  these  in- 
dustries depended  on  local  resources  even  more  than  on  mechan- 
ical improvement.  The  cotto7i  industry  was  virtually  destitute 
of  local  natural  resources,  and  was  unsupported  by  the  power 
and  prestige  of  men  of  the  class  of  Matthew  Boulton  the  iron 
master ;  and  the  revolution  in  this  industry  was  in  a  unique  sense 
a  creation  of  machines.  In  the  regions  around  Manchester  the 
change  was  almost  as  marked  as  at  the  metropolis.  Manchester 
is  described  as  the  "center"  of  the  new  system,  the  whole  of 
which  had  developed   with  a   "rapid   and  prodigious  increase 

unparalleled  in  the  annals  of  trading  nations."    Various 

other  towns  are  described  as  "sub-centers,  or  satellites  around 
Manchester;"  and  "the  whole  intervening  country  takes  its 
character  from  its  relation  to  them."  Again,  the  neighboring 
sub-centers  are  described  as  "appendages"  or  "branches." 
"Manchester  is  the  stock  of  that  vast  tree  which  has  lately 
grown  with  such  wonderful  rapidity,  and  spread  its  branchCvS 
through  so  large  an  extent  of  countr}", — the  cotton  manufac- 
ture. ' '  The  extent  of  the  spread  of  power  spinning  impressed  a 
tourist  in  1791  as  being  so  vast  that  it  could  be  but  temporary, 
' '  for  there  is  scarcely  a  stream  that  will  turn  a  wheel  through  the 
north  of  England  that  has  not  a  cotton  mill  upon  it."  ^^ 

The  increase  of  population  in  the  north  of  England  was  not 
confined  to  the  new  manufacturing  centers,  but  wherever  ob- 
served, it  was  attributed  by  many  writers  to  the  influence  of  the 
industries  in  these  centers.  The  increase  in  the  agricultural  re- 
gions and  in  the  port  towns  was  a  subject  of  frequent  comment. 

"  Aikin,  Description  of  the  Country   Bound  Manchester,  pp.  3, 

4,  176  (see  also  a  review  of  Aikin 's  work  in  the  Analytical  Eeview  of  No- 
vember, 1795)  ;  European  Magazine,  Vol.  20,  p.  140. 


34  THE  RISE  OF  THE  GREAT  MANUFACTURERS 

The  country  parishes  around  Manchester  and  Birmingham  sent 
streams  of  population  to  these  towns,  and  yet  the  country  re- 
gions themselves  increased  in  numbers  of  people.  This  was  due, 
it  was  held,  to  increased  demand  for  farm  products  by  the  peo- 
ple of  the  new  manufacturing  centers,  just  as  migration  from 
England  to  the  colonies  creates  a  demand  for  English  goods  in 
the  colonies,  and  by  adding  to  opportunities  for  emploj^ment 
leads  to  an  increase  of  population  at  home.  The  manufacturing 
industries  not  only  created  an  increased  demand  for  farm  pro- 
ducts, but  also  fostered  various  subsidiary  industries.  Thus  the 
growth  of  population,  wealth,  and  land  values  in  the  regions 
around  Manchester  and  Birmingham,  as  well  as  in  these  cities,  is 
accounted  for  by  the  productive  power  of  the  new  methods  of 
manufacturing.  ^^ 

The  industrial  expansion  in  the  north  of  England  was  a 
national  as  well  as  a  local  asset.  The  ability  of  the  country  to 
meet  the  financial  demands  of  war  and  extravagant  administra- 
tion was  attributed  by  some  writers  to  the  increase  of  wealth  due 
to  invention.  "The  genius  of  Watt,  Wedgwood,  and  Ark- 
wright  has  counteracted  the  expense  and  folly  of  the  American, 
war."  The  vast  increase  in  wealth  and  revenues  was  primarily 
attributed  by  William  Pitt  in  1792  to  the  same  cause.  ^* 

The  remarkable  development  of  the  north  was  vividly  de- 
scribed by  Arthur  Young,  who  wrote  in  1792  that  "all  the  ac- 

"Kev.  John  Hewlett,  An  Examination  of  Dr.  Price's  Essay  on  the 
Population  of  England  and  Wales,  pp.  6,  15,  16,  22,  132,  151,  153;  Hewlett, 
in  Gentleman's  Magazine,  Vol.  52,  p.  475;  J.  Wilson,  A  Letter,  Commer- 
cial and  Political,  Addressed  to  the  Bt.  EonoraMe  William  Pitt,  pp.  6,  7, 
24    (on  authorship,  see  Bibliography)  ;    Aikin,  Description   of  the  Country 

Hound  Manchester,   pp.  5,   6,    176;    Annuls  of  Agriculture,  Vol.   7, 

pp.  463,  464,  Vol.  16,  p.  552,  Vol.  19,  p.  254;  Eadcliffe,  Origin  of  the  New 
System  of  Manufacture  Commonly  Catted  "Power  Loom  Weaving,"  pp.  59, 
60,  65,  66. 

"Wilson,  Letter,  Commercial  and  Political,  pp.  6,  7;  Increase  of  Man- 
ufactures, Commerce  and  Finance,  p.  99;  Parliamentary  History,  Vol.  29, 
p.  833, 


THE  ECONOMIC  BASIS  35 

tivity  and  industry  of  this  kingdom  is  fast  concentrating"  there, 
and  the  whole  kingdom  is  seeking  "as  immediate  a  connection 
with  coals  and  manufactures,  by  means  of  inland  navigation,  as 
possible. ' ' " 

This  expansion  of  northern  industries  by  virtue  of  mechan- 
ical power  was  not  without  cost  to  less  progressive  industries. 
Indeed,  one  of  the  chief  manifestations  of  the  productive  power 
of  the  new  machines  was  the  outrivaling  of  old,  established,  dis- 
tinctly national  industries  by  the  cottons,  exotic,  laboring 
against  monopoly,  tradition,  and  various  legal  disadvantages. 
and  supported  merely  by  superiority  of  method. 

Comments  concerning  the  encroachment  of  cotton  fabrics 
upon  wool,  linen  and  silk  are  very  general.  We  are  told  that  at 
Wigan,  "the  cotton  manufactory,  as  in  all  other  places  [about 
Manchester],  intrudes  upon  the  old  staple  of  the  place."  The 
wool  manufacture  at  Kidderminster  is  described  in  1773  as  "in 
a  very  flourishing  state;"  but  in  1780  the  same  writer  finds  a 
condition  of  decay  and  poverty.  The  war  is  given  as  one  cause 
of  decline,  but  the  rivalry  of  cotton  is  emphasized.  "Cotton 
stuffs  are  now  (1780)  universally  preferred  to  worsted  stuffs, 
and  to  mixtures  of  worsted  and  silk. ' '  ^^ 

The  encroachment  of  "Manchester  goods"  upon  the  so- 
called  "staple"  was  indeed  "universal,"  that  is,  national  rather 
than  merely  local,  and  was  so  serious  as  to  arouse  grave  fears 
in  the  minds  of  public  men  as  well  as  of  woollen  manufacturers. 
Dean  Tucker  complained  of  "the  prodigious  disuse  of  coarse 
woollen  goods  throughout  every  part  of  the  kingdom,"  owing  to 
the  fact  that  silks,  cottons  and  linens,  "combined  in  a  thousand 
forms,  and  diversified  by  names  without  number,  are  now  almost 

"  In  Annals  of  Agrwulture,  Vol.  16,  p.  552. 

•'  Aikin,  Description  of  the  Country Bound  Manchester,  pp.  294, 

406,  438;  T.  Xash,  Collections  for  the  History  of  Worcestershire  (quoted  Jn 
Gentleman's  Magazine,  Vol.  52,  pp.  485-487);  European  Magazine,  Vol. 
20,  p.  140. 


36  THE  RISE  OF  THE  GREAT   MANUFACTURER?^ 

the  universal  wear."  Another  writer  (Ruggles)  complained  in 
1790  that  "every  woman  in  the  kingdom  is  clothed  in  these 
[cotton]  fabrics;  most  of  our  household  furniture  [fur- 
nishings] is  made  of  them."  He,  as  well  as  other  writers,  urged 
that  the  use  of  cottons  should  be  discouraged  officially ;  and  he 
referred  approvingly  to  the  action  of  a  local  society  in  opposing 
the  popular  consumption  of  cotton  goods.  A  dealer  in  woollens 
expressed  the  fear  that  woollen  manufacturers  and  their  families 
would  be  driven  "in  quest  of  bread  to  Manchester,"  the  iron 
manufacturing  centers  also  being  mentioned  in  the  same  connec- 
tion as  outrivaling  other  industries.  Lord  Sheffield  accounted 
for  the  decline  of  the  West  of  England  woollen  manufactures  in 
two  ways:  because  of  "the  use  of  Manchester  goods  in  many 
articles  wherein  superfine  woollens  were  formerly  used;"  and 
because  of  migrations  from  the  West  of  England  to  the  West 
Riding  of  Yorkshire.  ^^ 

The  latter  part  of  Lord  Sheffield's  explanation  of  the  decline 
of  the  West  of  England  woollen  industry — the  migrations  to  the 
West  Riding  of  Yorkshire — is  suggestive  of  another  important 
manifestation  of  the  productive  value  of  machines,  namely,  the 
superiority  of  the  more  progressive  woollen  manufacturers  over 
those  who  failed  to  adopt  the  machines.  For  in  the  West  of  Eng- 
land, the  woollen  manufacturers  were  slow  in  making  the  transi- 

"  Josiah  Tucker,  Beflections  on  the  Present  Low  Prices  of  Coarse  Wools, 
pp.  8,  9  (for  an  extract  from  his  proposed  method  of  enforcing  the  use  of 
woollens  by  a  system  of  virtual  serfdom  or  peonage,  see  Bischoflf,  Compre- 
hensive History  of  the  Woollen  and  Worsted  Manufactures,  Vol.  1,  pp.  225- 
228)  ;  T.  Ruggles,  The  History  of  the  Poor,  Vol.  1,  pp.  99,  19.5;  A  Woollen 
Draper's  Letter  on  the  French  Treaty,  pp.  27,  28;  John  Lord  Sheffield,  Ob- 
servation's on  the  Manufa<'tures,  Trade  and  Present  State  of  Ireland,  p.  190. 
See  also  The  Contrast;  or,  A  Comparison  between  Our  Woollen,  Linen,  Cot- 
ton and  Silk  Manufactures,  pp.  14,  48,  49;  Historical  and  Political  Bemarls 
upon  the  Tariff  of  the  Commercial  Treaty  [with  France],  pp.  166-168;  Gen- 

tleman's  Magazine,  Vol.  52,  p.  137;  Radcliffe,  Origin  of Pou-er-Loom 

Weaving,  p.  61;  W.  Cunningham,  Growth  of  English  Industry  and  Com- 
merce in  Modern  Times,  Pt.  2,  pp.  625,  654,  655. 


THE  ECONOMIC  BASIS  37 

tion,  while  in  the  West  Riding  of  Yorkshire  the  transition  fol- 
lowed quickly  upon  the  revolution  in  cotton  manufacturing.  A 
woollen  manufacturer,  arguing  in  1791  for  the  introduction  of 
machines  into  the  western  counties,  wrote  that  the  manufactur- 
ers of  Yorkshire,  ' '  by  dint  of  such  machines  and  engines,  not  only 
use  all  their  wool,  but  send  down  into  the  west  country  and  buy 
it  up  out  of  the  very  mouths  of  the  wool  dealers  and  clothiers, 
and  thereby  take  our  trade  with  it."  ^^ 

The  effects  of  the  new  devices  on  the  growth  and  shifting  of 
wealth,  population,  and  domestic  competitive  power  constitute 
an  impressive  demonstration  of  the  economic  basis  of  the  new 
manufacturers  in  the  productive  value  of  mechanical  methods. 
Not  less  important  is  the  increase  of  competitive  power  in  over- 
seas markets,  resulting  from  the  use  of  the  new  machines.  This 
was  indeed  to  the  people  of  the  time  the  chief  justification  for 
their  introduction,  the  chief  argument  in  extenuation  of  admit- 
ted evils  of  temporarj^  unemployment  and  maladjustment. 

In  the  decades  immediately  preceding  the  transition,  the 
question  of  the  effects  of  labor-saving  machines  was  discussed 
theoretically  by  various  writers,  and  the  consideration  most  fre- 
quently urged  in  favor  of  machines  was  their  value  in  enabling 
England  to  compete  with  other  countries.  As  the  transition 
progressed,  and  practical  opposition  to  labor-saving  machines  de- 
veloped, the  same  argument  became  the  chief  defense  of  the 
champions  of  the  new  order. 

In  the  early,  theoretical  aspects  of  the  controversy,  it  was 


"  H.  Wansey,  Wool  Encouraged  without  Exportation,  p.  69.  To  the 
same  effect  as  the  statements  by  Wansey  and  Sheffield  are  various  others. 
See  for  instances  the  statement  by  another  woollen  manufacturer,  John 
Anstie,  Observatiomi  on  the  Importance  and  Necessity  of  Introducing  Im- 
proved Machinery  into  the  Woollen  Manufactory,  pp.  10-14;  and  by  Sir 
Joseph  Banks,  P.  R.  S.,  in  the  preface  to  a  pamphlet,  Observations  on  a 
Bill  Eclating  to  Wool,  etc.,  p.  v.  See  also  Annals  vf  Agriculture,  Vol.  9, 
pp.  503,  504;  Annual  Register,  1780,  p.  197  (Chron.),  1781,  p.  196  (Chron.). 


38  THE  RISE  OF  THE  GREAT  MANUFACTURERS 

held  that  command  of  trade  depends  on  the  relative  cheapness  of 
the  commodities  offered  for  sale.  England,  by  reducing  the  price 
of  its  commodities,  by  means  of  labor-saving  inventions,  is  not 
taking  work  away  from  its  own  laborers ;  it  is  by  that  means  re- 
taining markets  which  would  otherwise  be  lost  to  more  progres- 
sive nations,  or  to  nations  where  labor  and  other  costs  of  produc- 
tion are  cheaper.  It  thus  prevents  the  loss  of  markets  and  in 
consequence  the  loss  of  employment  by  workmen.  Indeed,  it  may 
by  this  means  not  only  retain  existing  trade  but  gain  new 
markets;  and  while  this  may  "starve  the  rival  workmen,"  is  this 
not  to  be  preferred  to  allowing  other  nations  to  starve  our  own 
workmen  ?  But  labor-saving  inventions  are  to  be  desired  not 
only  because  of  their  value  in  enabling  the  inventive  nation  to 
supply  the  existing  demand  in  the  world's  markets  but  also  be- 
cause by  cheapening  commodities  they  increase  the  demand  and 
lead  to  enlarged  consumption  and  interchange.  No  sale  can  be 
so  sure  as  that  ' '  founded  upon  cheapness  of  price, ' '  which  guar- 
antees ' '  a  sure  and  quick  vent ' '  for  commodities.  Labor-saving 
machines,  in  brief,  are  ' '  of  prodigious  use  in  rendering  commod- 
ities cheap,  and  maintaining  great  numbers  of  people. ' ' '® 

This  theoretical  justification  of  labor-saving  machines  is  in 
accord  with  the  views  of  later  writers.  The  argument  recurs  in 
a  multitude  of  forms.  And  to  the  theoretical  argument  was 
added  the  appeal  to  experience. 

By  way  of  contrast,  it  is  interesting  to  observe  the  attitude 
toward  French  manufacturers  before  and  after  the  transition. 
There  is  an  account  written  in  1763  of  a  newly  established  cam- 


"  Sir  James  Steuart,  An  Inquiry  into  the  Principles  of  Political  Econ- 
omy, Vol.  1,  pp.  121-123;  Laivs  and  Policy  of  England  Relating  to  Trade, 
p.  42  (quoted  in  Political  Essays  concerning  the  Present  State  of  the  British 
Empire,  p.  213);  W.  Harte,  Essays  on  Husbandry,  p.  38;  Political  Essays 
concerning  the  Present  State  of  the  British  Empire,  pp.  168,  169,  209-219. 
The  last-named  work  summarizes  the  controversy  and  cites  various  other 
authors. 


THE  ECONOMIC  BASIS  39 

brie  industry  in  Sussex.  It  is  stated  that  "the  workmen  that  are 
now  employed  there  are  chiefly  French;"  but  the  hope  is  ex- 
pressed that  by  the  apprenticing  of  English  children,  "the  se- 
crets and  mysteries"  of  French  artisans  may  soon  become  known 
to  Englishmen.  "^  Two  decades  later,  the  superiority  of  English 
manufacturers,  due  to  the  use  of  machines,  was  so  obvious  as  to 
lead  them  to  support  the  treaty  with  France  for  opening  up  tlie 
French  market. 

An  important  export  to  France,  as  well  as  to  other  coun- 
tries, consisted  of  fustians,  the  extent  and  importance  of  the  fus- 
tian trade  depending  distinctly  upon  the  new  methods  of  manu- 
facturing. A  statement  of  the  value  of  the  fustian  trade  in  1785 
was  to  the  effect  that  ' '  it  brings  home  to  us  an  annual  return  of 
above  a  million  sterling  from  foreign  nations;"  and  the  trade 
was  said  to  be  more  valuable  than  '  *  an  inexhaustible  gold  mine. ' ' 
In  1787  a  member  of  the  House  of  Commons  told  that  body  that 
he  had  seen  Manchester  goods  worn  in  Normandy  within  a  few 
miles  of  the  chief  rival  French  establishment ;  and  these  goods 
had  forced  their  way  into  the  French  market  in  spite  of  govern- 
mental aid  given  to  the  French,  the  costs  of  freight,  and  risks 
of  smuggling.  Lord  Sheffield  stated  that  "Manchester  goods  are 
carried  from  England  into  France,  and  there  sold  as  French 
manufactures."  Arthur  Young  commented  on  the  "almost 
miraculous"  state  of  the  cotton  industry,  and  the  ability  of  Eng- 
lish manufacturers  to  import  much  of  their  raw  cotton  from 
France,  pay  a  French  duty  of  a  penny  a  pound,  work  it  up  "  un- 
der the  double  freights,  insurance,  and  charges — land  the  fabric, 
under  12i/^  duty,  and  undersell  those  of  France  from  12  to  20 
per  cent  and  in  some  articles,  much  more."  ^^ 

'"  Miiseinn  Eusticum  et  Commerciale,  Vol.  1,  pp.  174-177. 

"  J.  Wright,  An  Address  to Parliament  on  the  Late  Tax  Laid  on 

Fustian  and  other  Cotton  Goods,  p.  7;  Parliamentary  History,  Vol.  26, 
p.  484;  Sheffield,  Observations  on  the  Commerce  of  the  American  States, 
p.  28;  Annals  of  Agriculture,  Vol.  8,  p.  482,  Vol.  10,  pp.  253,  254. 


40  THE  RISE  OF  THE  GREAT   MANUFACTURERS 

Young,  in  explaining  this  condition,  assigned  to  the  new  ma 
chines  the  chief,  though  not  the  only  influence,  for  the  French, 
he  said,  were  beginning  to  copy  English  machines.  He  attributed 
the  power  of  English  cotton  manufacturers  to  "vast  capitals," 
and  ' '  such  a  mass  of  attendant  skill,  invention,  nerve,  and  vigor, 
that  no  competition  can  stand  before  them."  It  is  stated  un- 
equivocally by  another  writer  that  the  superiority  of  English 
manufacturers  of  ironware,  silk,  and  hosiery,  and  chief  of  all  of 
cotton  goods,  is  one  of  "the  amazing  and  happy  effects  of  me- 
chanical combinations. "  It  is  impossible,  asserts  a  keen  German 
observer  of  foreign  as  well  as  of  English  conditions,  for  the  Eng- 
lish to  sell  their  goods  cheaper  than  foreigners  "otherwise  than 
by  the  use  of  machines. ' '  Again  we  read  that  the  effect  of  the 
use  of  the  inventions,  particularly  in  Lancashire,  has  been  to 
enable  Englishmen  to  produce  their  commodities  "cheaper,  more 
expeditiously,  and  more  perfectly,"  and  "to  bring  the  various 
articles  to  market  in  tliat  state  of  perfection  which  now  so  emi- 
nently distinguishes  the  fabrics  of  England  from  those  of  any 
other  country. ' '  ®^ 

It  is  seen  that  theoretical  writers  anticipated  the  competi- 
tive value  of  machines ;  that  the  use  of  machines  was  accom- 
panied b}^  an  "almost  miraculous"  power  of  English  manufac- 
turers ;  and  that  the  superior  competitive  power  of  the  English 
was  commonly  viewed  as  one  of  "the  amazing  and  happy  effects 
of  mechanical  combinations. ' '  To  this  view  bore  witness  not  only 
the  various  general  writers  cited  above  but  statesmen  and  public 
officials  as  well  and  the  manufacturers  themselves.    William  Pitt. 


"  T.,  Letters  on  the  Utility  and  Policy  of  Employing  Machines  to  Short- 
en Labor,  pp.  4,  5,  6,  9,  10;  Wendeborn,  A  View  of  England  toivard  the 
Close  of  the  Eighteenth  Century,  Vol.  1,  pp.  235,  236 ;  Eev.  A.  C.  Schom- 
berg,  in  Annals  of  Agriculture,  Vol.  9,  pp.  534,  535.  See  also  Kenriek,  An 
Address  to  the  Artists  and  Manufacturers  of  Great  Britain,  p.  18;  Histor- 
ical and  Political  Remarks  upon  the  Tariff  of  the  Commercial  Treaty,  p.  81; 
[William  Eden],  A  Short  Vindication  of  tlic  French  Treaty,  p.  26. 


THE  ECONOMIC  BASIS  41 

in  his  great  speech  of  February  12,  1787,  in  support  of  the  treaty 
of  commerce  with  France,  made  the  mechanical  superiority  of 
English  manufacturers  the  principal  basis  of  the  liberalism  of 
the  treaty.  Josiah  Wedgwood,  testifying  before  a  committee  of 
the  House  of  Lords  in  behalf  of  the  manufacturers  generally, 
stated  that  "there  are  articles  of  the  utmost  consequence  to  the 
manufactures  of  this  kingdom,  as  they  enable  us  to  baffle  all  com 

petition  with  foreign  markets These  are  the  machines, 

presses,  dies  and  tools,  in  which  the  manufacturers  of  Great 
Britain  excel  all  the  world. ' '  ^^ 

The  recognition  by  Englishmen  of  the  competitive  value  of 
their  inventions  was  closely  connected  with  the  interest  mani- 
fested by  foreigners  and  particularly  the  attempts  by  foreigners 
to  apply  them  to  their  own  industries.  The  Manchester  manu- 
facturers had  become  so  powerful,  we  are  told  by  a  member  of 
the  House  of  Commons  in  1785,  as  to  be  "the  pride  of  this  coun- 
try and  the  envy  of  foreign  nations ;"  and  again  we  read  that  the 
English  cotton  industry  "has  excited  the  admiration  and 
jealousy  of  all  Europe. ' '  '* 

But  the  attitude  of  foreigners  was  by  no  means  confined  to 
admiration,  envy,  or  jealousy.    Thej-  attempted  in  various  ways 

"  For  characteristic  views  of  public  officials  and  manufacturers,  see 
Parliamentary  History,  Vol.  25,  p.  842,  Vol.  26,  pp.  384,  385,  395,  544; 
Parliamentary  Register,  Vol.  10,  p.  214;  Commons  Journals,  Vol.  37,  pp. 
882,  926;  Beport  of  the  Lords  of  the  Committee  of  Council  (on  Irish  Reso- 
lutions, 1785),  p.  56;  Minutes  of  the  Evidence  talcen  before  a  Committee 
of  the  Rouse  of  Commons  (on  Irish  Resolutions,  1785),  p.  34;  Minutes  of 
the  Evidence  taken  before  a  Committee  of  the  House  of  Lords  (on  Irish 
Resolutions,  1785),  p.  148  (Wedgwood's  statement  quoted  above);  Gentle- 
man's Magazine,  Vol.  49,  p.  609;  Amiual  Begister,  1779,  p.  233  (Chron.)  ; 
Sheffield,  Observations  on  the  Commerce  of  the  American  States,  p.  28;  Let- 
ter from  a  Manchester  Manufacturer  to  the  Eight  Honorable  Charles  James 

Fox,  pp.   14,   15;   Anstie,  Observations  on Introducing  Improved 

Machinery  into  the  Woollen  Manufactory,  p.  15  and  passim;  Wansey,  Wool 
Encouraged  without  Exportation,  pp.  49,  67-70. 

**  Parliamentary  History,  Vol.  25,  p.  489;  British  Merchant  for  1787. 
p.  27   (by  a  writer  hostile  to  the  political  views  of  the  manufacturers). 


42  THE  RISE  OF  THE  GREAT  MANUFACTURERS 

to  secure  a  knowledge  of  English  devices  and  to  make  use  of 
them  in  their  own  industries.  They  induced  English  working- 
men  and  even  master  manufacturers  and  capitalists  to  go  abroad 
They  offered  rewards  to  English  inventors  and  artisans  to  induce 
them  to  settle  abroad.  They  sent  agents  to  England  with  letters 
of  introduction  by  which  they  might  secure  access  to  English 
factories  for  the  purpose  of  securing  drawings  and  first-hand 
knowledge.  They  appropriated  public  funds  for  the  encourage- 
ment of  factories  of  the  English  type.  They  employed  drafts- 
men to  copy  drawings  and  specifications  from  the  British  patent 
records.  They  sent  representatives  to  investigate  English  ma- 
chinery and  methods.  They  offered  to  purchase  English  goods 
on  condition  that  samples  of  the  implements  with  which  the 
goods  were  made  were  sent  with  the  goods.  They  attempted  to 
stimulate  interest  in  mechanical  improvement  by  public  exhibits 
of  models  of  English  machines.  The  principal  countries  involved 
were  France,  Austria  and  the  Empire,  Prussia,  Holland,  Swit- 
zerland, and  the  United  States.  But  to  Englishmen  the  chief  or 
at  least  the  most  successful  of  sinners  against  the  attempted 
monopoly  of  their  inventions  was  France.  That  the  French  early 
succeeded,  by  the  aid  of  Englishmen,  in  securing  and  operating 
the  new  cotton  machinery  is  attested  by  many  witnesses.  Arthur 
Young,  for  instance,  in  his  Travels,  speaks  of  Rouen  as  "the 
Manchester  of  France;"  and  factories  there  as  elsewhere  were 
established  and  conducted,  he  informs  us,  by  Englishmen. "' 

"  Concerning  foreign  interest  in  English  inventions,  see  Commons 
Journals,  Vol.  47,  pp.  559,  560;  Parliamentary  History,  Vol.  26,  pp.  544, 
552;  Parliamentary  Register,  Vol.  10,  p.  214;  Minutes  of  the  Evidence 
Tali-en  before  a  Committee  of  the  House  of  Lords  (on  Irish  Resolutions, 
1785),  pp.  148,  149,  249,  250;  Wendeborn,  Vieiv  of  England,  \o\.  1,  pp.  233, 
234;  Meteyard,  Life  of  Josiah  Wedgwood,  Vol.  2,  pp.  551,  552;  Wheeler, 
Manchester:  Its  Political,  Social  and  Commercial  History,  Ancient  and 
Modern,  p.  171;  Life  of  Eobert  Owen,  Vol.  1,  p.  31;  Historical  and  Polit- 
ical Remarks  upon  the  Tariff  of  the  Comrnercial  Treaty,  p.  89,  n. ;  The  Brit- 
ish Merchant  for  1787,  p.  18  and  passim;  A  Complete  Investigation  of  Mr. 


THE  ECONOMIC  BASIS  43 

The  experience  of  Englishmen  with  the  competitive  value 
of  their  inventions,  combined  with  the  various  attempts  of  for- 
eigners to  obtain  and  apply  them  in  their  own  industries,  led  to 
the  adoption  of  a  policy  of  monopoly,  ^^  In  the  absence  of  in- 
ternational patent  laws,  Englishmen  naturally  sought  to  pre- 
serve for  their  own  use  the  advantages  of  their  inventions  by  a 
purely  national  protective  system ;  and  other  nations,  not  bound 
by  an  international  system  to  respect  the  patent  rights  of  Eng- 
lishmen, naturally  made  it  difficult  for  Englishmen  to  pursue 
their  national  policy  with  respect  to  patents  effectively.  Indeed, 
many  held  it  to  be  impossible,  and  such  a  view  was  made  the 
basis  of  opposition  to  more  liberal  trade  regulations  such  as  were 
embodied  in  the  Irish  Resolutions  and  the  treaty  of  commerce 
with  France,  for  it  was  held  that  since  the  competitive  advantage 
due  to  superior  machinery  would  be  temporary,  due  to  access  of 
foreigners  to  English  methods,  it  was  necessary  to  continue  the 
old  protective  system  in  commerce.  ^'' 

Views   concerning   the   difficulty   of   preventing   foreigners 


Eden's  Treaty,  p.  80  and  passim;  French,  Life  and  Times  of  Samuel 
Crompton,  pp.  191,  192;  Sheffield,  Observations  on  the  Manufactures,  Trade, 
and  Present  State  of  Ireland,  pp.  200,  201;  Journal  and  Correspondence  of 
William,  Lord  Auckland,  Vol.  1,  p.  516;  Young,  Travels  iii  France,  2d  ed., 
pp.  523-530,  553,  554  (including  quotations  from  French  writers  and  man 
ufacturers) ;  F.  Dumas,  Etude  sur  le  traite  de  commerce  de  1786  entre  la 
France  et  I'Angleterre,  pp.  70,  152-157;  G.  S.  White,  Memoir  of  Samuel 
Slater,  pp.  36,  37,  71,  283-298. 

""  It  has  been  asserted  that  '  *  the  policy  of  endeavoring  to  retain  the  ad- 
vantages of  machinery  for  England  alone  was  mooted,  but  never  very  ser- 
iously pursued,  and  it  was  definitely  abandoned  in  1825. ' '  (Cunningham, 
Growth  of  English  Industry  and  Commerce  in  Modern  Times,  Pt.  2,  p.  609), 
The  evidence  supports  the  view  that  such  a  policy  was  not  merely  mooted 
but  seriously  and  comprehensively  followed. 

"British  Merchant  for  1787,  pp.  18,  57-63;  View  of  the  Treaty  of  Com- 
merce with  France,  pp.  8,  30-33;  Parliamentary  History,  Vol.  26,  pp.  493, 
552,  576;  Minutes  of  the  Evidence  taken  before  a  Committee  of  the  House 
of  Lords  (on  Irish  Resolutions,  1785),  pp.  253-255;  Report  of  the  Lords  of 
the  Committee  of  Council  (on  Irish  Resolutions,  1785),  pp.  70,  82, 


44  THE  RISE  OF  THE  GREAT   MANUFACTURERS 

from  utilizing  English  inventions  were,  however,  exaggerated  in 
order  to  make  the  political  arguments  against  commercial  liber 
alism  appear  stronger.  In  any  case  the  difficulty  did  not  deter 
those  interested  from  attempting  to  retain  exclusive  use  of  the 
machines,  and  this  attempt  assumed  a  number  of  forms.  Legal 
protection  was  not  the  sole  reliance.  Writers  and  inventors 
were  careful  not  to  describe  the  machines  in  detail  for  fear  of 
furnishing  information  to  rivals.  Workingmen  were  urged,  on 
grounds  of  patriotism  and  self-interest,  as  well  as  because  of  the 
legal  penalties,  to  refrain  from  taking  abroad  their  skill  and  me- 
chanical knowledge.  Manufacturers  closed  their  mills  against 
visitors,  the  outer  doors  being  kept  locked  to  prevent  the  entrance 
of  spies  and  foreign  agents.  The  government  was  urged  to  pro- 
vide proper  rewards  for  inventors  in  order  to  induce  them  to  re- 
frain from  going  to  other  states  with  their  inventions.  The  ques- 
tion aroused  very  general  and  persistent  interest,  and  held  a 
place  of  prominence  in  the  controversies  that  raged  around  such 
policies  as  the  Irish  Resolutions  and  the  treaty  of  commerce  with 
France.  ^^ 

The  main  support  of  those  who  sought  to  reserve  to  Eng- 
lishmen the  use  of  the  new  machines  was  a  comprehensive  system 
of  laws  to  prevent  the  inventions  or  a  knowledge  of  them  from 
reaching  foreigners. 

Laws  of  this  type  were  not  unknown  before  the  great  transi- 
tion to  mechanical  power,  but  the  earlier  statutes  involved  ma- 
chines which  were  distinct  forerunners  of  the  later  epoch-mak- 


"  [Ogden],  Description  of  Manchester,  p.  93;  Baines,  History  of  the 
Cotton  Manufacture,  p.  190;  Kenrick,  An  Address  to  the  Artists  and  Manu- 
facturers of  Great  Britain,  pp.  47,  48 ;  T.,  Letters  on  the  Utility  and  Policy 
of  Employing  Machines  to  Shorten  Labor,  p.  7  and  passim;  Life  of  Bobert 
Owen,  Vol.  1,  p.  31;  Julia  WedgT^'ood,  The  Personal  Life  of  Josiah  Wedg 
wood,  pp.  228,  229;  Meteyard,  Life  of  Josiah  Wedgwood,  Vol.  2,  pp.  551, 
552;  Wheeler,  Manchester,  p.  171;  Parliamentary  History,  Vol.  25,  p.  941; 
Vol.  26,  pp.  390-392 ;  Commons  Journals,  Vol.  47,  pp.  499,  1088. 


THE  ECONOMIC  BASIS  45 

ing  textile  inventions,  namely,  the  stocking  frame  and  the  mech- 
anisms used  in  the  mannfacture  of  silk.  The  law  to  prohibit  the 
export  of  the  stocking  frame  (7  and  8  William  III,  c.  20,  sees.  6 
and  4  in  Statutes  of  the  Realm,  sees.  8  and  9  in  Pickering's 
Statutes  at  Large)  was  based  on  the  fact  that  by  means  of  this 
invention  "great  quantities  are  wrought  off  in  a  little  time," 
and  the  purpose  of  the  law,  as  of  later  similar  statutes,  was  to 
retain  for  Englishmen  the  exclusive  benefits  of  the  invention. 
Silk  manufacturing  as  well  as  the  hosiery  industry  had  been  car- 
ried on  for  a  considerable  period  antedating  the  factory  system 
by  machinery  of  an  extensive  and  elaborate  type.  This  machin- 
ery was  of  Italian  rather  than  English  invention,  and  yet  at 
length  in  1750  it  also  became  the  sub.iect  of  protective  legislation 
(23  George  II,  c.l3). 

This  law,  as  well  as  a  law  of  1719  (5  George  I,  c.  27),  sought 
by  another  means  to  safeguard  mechanical  skill — namely,  by  for- 
bidding skilled  workmen  to  leave  the  country  and  by  imposing 
penalties  upon  any  who  induced  or  aided  them  to  emigrate. 
There  is  no  evidence  that  the  main  intent  of  the  law  of  1719  at 
the  time  of  its  passage  was  to  protect  English  machines  from  for- 
eigners, but  it  later  acquired  considerable  importance  in  this  con- 
nection. 

The  law  of  1750  applied  not  only  to  the  silk  industry  but  for- 
bade the  export  of  tools  and  utensils  and  the  emigration  of  work- 
men employed  in  the  manufacture  of  woollens  as  well  as  of  silks. 

This  law  was  but  one  of  many  forms  of  protection  enjoyed 
by  the  woollen  manufacturers.  They  had  long  had  a  monopoly 
of  raw  materials  and  of  the  home  market,  and  their  natural  and 
legal  advantages  rather  than  their  mechanical  superiority, 
formed  the  chief  source  of  their  economic  strength.  When  the 
newer  industries,  particularly  cotton  manufacturing,  developed, 
their  condition  was  the  reverse  of  that  of  the  woollen  industry. 
Having  neither  natural  nor  legal  advantages,  the  strength  of  the 


46  THE  RISE  OF  THE  GREAT  MANUFACTURERS 

cotton  manufacturers  depended  primarily  upon  superiority  of 
methods.  Soon  after  the  invention  of  improved  spinning  ma- 
chines, the  question  of  protecting  them  from  foreigners  by  legis- 
lation similar  to  the  laws  protecting  the  hosiery,  silk,  and  woollen 
manufacturers  was  raised  in  parliament,  and  the  result  was  the 
law  of  1774  (14  George  III,  c.  71),  forbidding  the  export  of  tooh 
or  utensils  used  in  manufacturing  cotton  or  cotton  and  linen 
mixed.  This  law  was  used  as  a  weapon  against  the  rebellious 
American  colonies,  although  the  next  year,  1775,  witnessed  a 
slight  relaxation  of  the  laws  against  the  export  of  machines  to 
the  North  American  colonies  (15  George  II,  c.  5). 

The  laws  outlined  above  forbade  the  export  of  machines,  but 
this  was  inadequate,  because  the  machines  might  be  reproduced 
abroad  by  means  of  models,  sketches,  or  specifications.  In  1781 
this  defect  in  previous  laws  was  remedied  by  a  new  law  (21 
George  III,  c.  37)  forbidding  the  export  not  only  of  the  ma- 
chines themselves  but  of  models  or  plans  or  similar  information 
concerning  machines  used  in  the  manufacture  of  the  principal 
textiles. 

By  1782,  another  branch  of  textile  manufacturing,  in  addi- 
tion to  spinning  and  weaving,  had  developed  mechanical  meth- 
ods vastly  superior  to  earlier  processes.  This  was  the  printing  of 
cloth,  particularly  of  cottons  and  linens,  by  means  of  cylinders 
in  place  of  blocks.  In  consequence,  a  law  (22  George  III,  c.  60; 
was  enacted  to  prohibit  the  export  of  machines  used  in  printing, 
and  also  to  forbid  the  emigration  of  artisans. 

Legal  protection  was  thus  afforded  textile  manufacturers 
against  the  use  of  their  machines  by  foreigners,  but  in  the  mean- 
time there  had  also  been  developed  in  the  metal  industries  a 
large  number  of  devices  and  processes  second  only  in  importance 
to  those  in  the  textile  industries.     The  manufacturers  insisted, 


THE  ECONOMIC  BASIS  47 

particularly  in  connection  with  the  Irish  Resolutions  of  1785,  *^ 
that  the  laws  be  made  to  include  the  improvements  in  these  in- 
dustries. In  1785  a  law  (25  George  III,  c.  67)  was  enacted  to 
prevent  the  export  of  machines  and  of  models  or  plans  of  ma- 
chines used  in  the  iron  and  steel  industry,  and  also  to  prohibit 
the  emigration  of  artisans.  In  the  year  following,  a  law  (26 
George  III,  c.  89)  supplanted  the  act  of  1785  by  a  detailed  list 
of  tools  and  utensils.  This  law  was  temporary,  but  was  renewed 
from  time  to  time  till  1795,  when  it  was  made  permanent  (35 
George  III,  c.  38). 

In  1825  a  parliamentary  committee  favored  the  repeal  of 
these  laws,  partly  because  of  laissez-faire  views,  and  partly  on 
the  ground  that  the  existing  state  of  the  laws  was  so  chaotic  as  to 
render  enforcement  difficult.  In  some  instances  licenses  were 
granted  for  the  export  of  machines  legally  prohibited,  but  ac- 
cording to  a  committee  reporting  in  1841,  in  the  processes  con- 
nected with  spinning  and  weaving  the  policy  of  monopoly  was 
maintained,  licenses  for  the  export  of  spinning  and  weaving  ma- 
chines never  having  been  granted.  Means  were  frequently  found 
to  evade  the  laws,  but  their  enactment  and  the  persistent  adher- 
ence to  the  policy  of  monopoly  afford  significant  evidence  of  pub- 
lic recognition  of  the  productive  and  competitive  power  of  the 
great  inventions.  ^" 

This  new  power  was  thus  recognized,  guarded,  and  fostercl 
in  various  ways  by  the  people  of  the  time.  The  fact  that  the 
transition  Avas  so  rapid,  and  the  fact  that  it  was  so  largely  con- 


'^  Briiish  Merchant  for  1787,  pp.  .57-63;  Minutes  of  the  Evidence  taken 
before  a  Committee  of  the  House  of  Lords  (on  Irish  Resolutions,  1785), 
pp.  148,  248-258. 

"  Eeport  from  the  Select  Committee  on  the  Laws  Relating  to  the  Ex- 
port of  Tools  and  Machinery,  1825,  pp.  2-9,  47-51 ;  First  Eeport  and  Second 
Eeport  from  the  Select  Committee  appointed  to  Inquire  into  the  Operation 
of  the  Existing  Laws  Affecting  the  Exportation  of  Machinery,  1841,  partic- 
ularly Second  Eeport,  p.  iv. 


48  THE  RISE  OF  THE  GREAT  MANUFACTURERS 

fined  to  Britain,  gave  to  the  British  industries  affected  an  in- 
calculable advantage.  In  a  word,  the  singular  productive  and 
competitive  power  of  the  machine  afforded  an  unparalleled 
economic  basis  for  the  rapid  development  of  manufacturing  en- 
terprises, and  out  of  these  there  arose  a  new  industrial  group — 
the  great  manufacturers. 


CHAPTER  III 
The  General  Chamber  of  Manufacturers  of  Great  Britain 

It  has  now  been  seen  that  the  inventions  were  in  the  first 
place  essentially  the  result  of  a  prevailing  spirit  of  mechanical 
progress,  consciously  recognized  and  fostered  by  writers,  by  the 
government,  and  by  the  concerted  efforts  of  various  non-profit- 
making  organizations.  It  has  been  shown,  further,  that  the  pro- 
ductive and  competitive  value  of  the  new  devices  was  widely 
recognized  in  the  writings  of  the  time,  in  the  ready  acceptance  of 
machine-made  commodities  by  consumers,  and  in  attempts  on  the 
part  of  the  government  as  well  as  of  manufacturers  to  maintain 
for  Britain  a  monopoly  of  their  use. 

The  extensive  manifestations  of  public  spirit  attending  the 
transition  favored  a  public-spirited  control  and  utilization  of  the 
inventions.  But  other  influences  tended  in  the  opposite  direc- 
tion— that  is,  in  the  direction  of  an  organization  of  the  new  sys- 
tem of  manufacturing  on  the  basis  of  private  initiative  and  pri- 
vate profit-making  unrestrained  by  public  control  and  conscious 
efforts  to  make  the  inventions  minister  to  public  welfare.  Among 
these  latter  forces  may  be  mentioned  the  prevailing  dissatisfac- 
tion with  the  old  system  of  public  control  of  industry;  the  acute- 
ness  of  party  conflicts,  which  focused  attention  on  political  is- 
sues and  maneuvers ;  the  discrediting  of  the  government  during 
the  crucial  period  of  industrial  transition  by  the  failure  of 
George  III  and  his  ministers  in  foreign  and  colonial  policy  and 
domestic  reform ;  and  the  acceptance  by  Pitt  and  his  followers  of 
laissez-faire  doctrines.  During  the  earlier  stages  of  the  organiza- 
tion of  mechanical  production,  the  forces  of  individualism  and 


50  THE  RISE  OP  THE  GREAT   MANUFACTURERS 

private  gain  therefore  prevailed  with  slight  restraint.  The  lat- 
ent disadvantages  of  such  an  organization  to  the  laborers  and  the 
public  developed  somewhat  later  under  the  influence  of  the  pol 
icy  of  reaction  and  repression  connected  with  the  French  wars 
into  a  system  of  industrial  control  essentially  anti-social.  But 
the  disadvantages  were  at  first  not  fully  apparent,  and  the  or- 
ganization of  the  system  assumed  a  form  that  was  largely  spon- 
taneous, undirected,  and  unrestrained,  and  in  consequence  the 
benefits  derived  therefrom  by  the  workers  and  the  larger  public 
were  secondary  and  merely  incidental  to  the  benefits  secured  by 
the  manufacturers  who  fashioned  the  system. 

The  individual  meir.bers  of  the  new  group  have  in  most 
instances  remained  obscure.  Josiah  Wedgwood  of  the  Stafford- 
shire p  tterics,  and  Matthew  Boulton,  the  Birmingham  ironmas- 
ter, are  probably  the  best  known  members  of  the  group.  Sir 
Richard  Arkwright,  whose  name  is  most  commonly  associated 
with  the  origin  of  the  factory  system,  had  little  to  do  with  the 
organized  activities  of  the  group.  By  virtue  of  his  control  of 
patents,  a  fight  was  waged  against  him,  which  tended  to  unify 
the  group  but  to  isolate  from  it  the  man  who,  more -perhaps  than 
any  other,  was  its  creator.  Even  Arkwright 's  career  is  little 
known  and  has  been  the  subject  of  numerous  controversies 
rather  than  of  well-informed  discussion.  Jedediah  Strutt,  the 
Derbyshire  hosiery  manufacturer  and  partner  of  Arkwright,  is 
more  frequently  mentioned  because  of  his  inventions  and  his  as- 
sociation with  Arkwright  than  because  of  his  Vv^ork  as  a  manu- 
facturer. Robert  Owen,  whose  career  as  a  manufacturer  began 
at  Manchester,  has  left  a  remarkable  and  enduring  record  of  his 
life  in  his  autobiography,  but  his  fame  is  based  mainly  upon  ac- 
tivities and  vieAvs  beyond  the  scope  of  the  present  study.  Thomas 
Walker,  a  prominent  cotton  manufacturer  and  exporter  at  Man- 
chester, who  represented  Manchester  in  seeking  the  repeal  of  the 
cotton  tax  in  1785,  and  who  was  otherwise  active  in  the  new 


THE   GENERAL  CHAMBER  OF  MANUFACTURERS  51 

group,  is  better  known  because  of  his  political  activities  as  a  local 
Whig  leader  than  because  of  his  career  as  a  manufacturer.  Rob- 
ert Peel,  pioneer  cotton  printer  of  Lancashire,  was  also  an  in- 
ventor, and  he  has  been  rescued  from  obscurity  mainly  by  means 
of  the  fame  of  his  son,  the  first  Sir  Robert  Peel,  and  of  his  grand- 
son, the  prime  minister.  The  first  baronet  of  the  name  had  at- 
tained such  eminence  because  of  his  father 's  wealth  and  his  own 
manufacturing  enterprises  as  to  become  in  1790  a  member  of 
parliament  and  a  "very  respectable  gentleman,"  and  he,  there- 
fore, because  of  his  own  career  as  well  as  that  of  his  more  illus- 
trious son,  was  able  to  emerge  from  the  obscurity  of  the  work- 
shop. 

As  for  the  manufacturers  generally,  they  belonged  to  hum-^ 
ble  families,  and  most  of  them  probably  sought  wealth  without 
thought  of  fame ;  and  their  relations  to  the  beginnings  and  organ- 
ization of  a  group  that  was  ultimately  to  control  the  country  were 
for  the  most  part  dictated  by  the  prospect  of  immediate  eco 
nomic  advantage.    If  there  were  those  who  coveted  a  lasting  rep- 
utation by  means  of  industrial  pursuits,  they  were  forestalled  in 
most   cases  by  lack  of  ' '  respectability ' '  if  not  by  lack  of  dis- 1 
tinctive  achievement. 

That  the  members  of  the  new  group,  particularly  in  the  tex- 
tile industries,  were  recruited  from  diverse  and  relatively  humble 
classes  is  commonly   recognized.  "     But  notwithstanding  their 


"See  Mantoux,  La  Revolution  Industrielle,  pp.  379,  ff. ;  Hammond,  The 
Town  Laborer,  pp.  7-11.  For  contemporaneous  comments,  see  Annual  Beg- 
ister,  1792,  Pt.  2,  p.  37  (Chron.)  ;  Life  of  Eohert  Otven,  Vol.  1,  pp.  22,  37, 
and  passim;  Minutes  of  the  Evidence  taken  before  a  Committee  of  the 
House  of  Commons  (on  Irish  Resolutions  1785),  pp.  25,  30;  Minutes  of  the 
Evidence  taken  before  a  Committee  of  the  House  of  Lords  (on  Irish  Reso- 
lutions, 1785),  pp.  227,  239;  J.  Wright,  An  Address  to Parliament 

on  the  late  tax  laid  on  Fustian  and  other  Cotton  Goods,  p.  27;  John  Holt, 
Survey  of  Lancashire,  1794  (quoted  by  Hasbach,  English  Agricultural  La- 
borer, p.  105) ;  Gisborne,  An  Enquiry  into  the  Duties  of  Men,  p.  571.  Com- 
ment on  the  humble  origins  and  narrow  outlook  of  the  early  manufacturers 


52  THE  RISE  OP  THE  GREAT  MANUFACTURERS 

varied  and  discrete  origins,  the  new  manufacturers  earlj 
showed  a  marked  tendency  to  become  differentiated  into  a  dis- 
tinct class. 

An  evidence  of  this  tendency  is  to  be  found  in  the  spirit  of 
antagonism  between  the  landed  classes  and  new  manufacturers. 
This  was  perhaps  due  in  part  to  the  disruption  of  the  old  estab- 
lished stratification  of  agricultural  classes.  The  yeomanry  tend- 
ed to  become  absorbed  in  the  new  industrial  classes;  a  few  of  the 
yeomen  became  capitalistic  manufacturers,  but  most  of  them,  in 
the  region  of  Lancashire,  probably  became  factory  workers.  The 
new  industries  also  interfered  seriously  with  the  preeminence  of 
the  aristocracy.  There  is  complaint  of  the  "inundation  of  new 
men,"  who  "expel  the  ancient  families,  destroy  the  venerable 
mansions  of  antiquity,  and  place  in  their  stead  what  seemeth 
good  in  their  own  eyes  of  glaring  brick  or  ponderous  stone;"  and 
the  country  is  urged  "to  preserve  the  memory  of  those  persons 
and  those  houses  whose  light  is  in  its  wane."  The  same  tendency 
is  observed  by  another  writer,  who,  instead  of  lamenting,  re- 
joices in  the  rewards  of  industry  in  the  form  of  elegant  houses 
supplanting  the  old  mansions  in  the  region  of  Manchester  and 
Preston.  In  reference  to  the  latter  town  he  says  that  "from  the 
number  of  genteel  families  with  which  this  town  formerly 
abounded,  it  got  the  epithet  proud.  Trade  and  manufactures 
have  made  a  revolution  in  this  matter,"  however,  and  "instead 
of  cards,  therefore,  for  killing  time,  cards  are  used  by  which 
thousands  may  live."  ''' 

is  interestingly  ilhistraterl  by  the  cases  of  two  of  the  greatest  and  wealthiest 
of  the  cotton  manufacturers  who,  in  1785,  while  expressing  their  intention 
to  remove  their  enterprises  to  Ireland,  stated  before  parliament  that  they 
had  never  visited  that  country. 

"  Aikin,  Description  of  the  Country   Round  Manchester,  pp.  23, 

44,  192,  205,  206,  283,  ff . ;  Holt,  Survey  of  Lancashire,  1794  (quoted  in 
Hasbaeh,  English  AgricuJtvral  Laborer,  p.  105)  ;  The  Topographer,  Vol.  1, 
(for  1789),  Preface,  pp.  iii,  iv  (London,  1789);  European  Magazine,  Vol. 
20,  pp.  216,  217. 


THE   GENERAL  CHAMBER  OF   MANUFACTURERS  53 

The  spirit  of  disdain  assumed  by  the  landed  class  toward 
the  manufacturers  is  illustrated  by  the  experience  of  Cart- 
wright,  whose  social  status  was  compromised  by  his  ventures  in 
manufacturing:;  by  the  faint  praise  accorded  Arkwright  upon 
his  death,  who  was  criticised  for  his  frugality  and  crudeness,  and 
described  as  a  useful  though  not  a  great  character;  and  by  the 
custom  in  Lancashire  of  denying  to  manufacturers  the  privi- 
lege of  becoming  magistrates.  A  moralist  of  the  time  observed 
this  tendency,  and  he  condemned  "the  aristocratic  prejudices 
and  the  envious  contempt  of  neighboring  peers  and  country  gen- 
tlemen   who disgrace  themselves  by  looking  down 

on   the  man   raised  by   merit  and  industry   from    obscurity   to 
eminence."  ^^ 

At  Manchester  this  attitude  was  early  apparent,  and  group 
antagonism  was  reciprocal.  Evidence  to  this  effect  is  found,  for 
instance,  in  the  writings  of  a  Manchester  clergyman,  Rev. 
Thomas  Bancroft,  giving  expression  to  the  hostility  between  the 
manufacturers  and  the  aristocracy,  and  to  the  growing  class  con- 
sciousness of  the  former,  and  foretelling  the  destined  preemi- 
nence of  the  industrial  group  of  the  north  of  England.  Ban- 
croft, as  early  as  1777,  in  poems  in  the  form  of  letters  addressed 
to  a  friend  at  Cambridge,  described  the  manufacturing  activities 
at  Manchester  ("Mancunium"),  and  continued: 

"This  is  fustian,  rank  fustian,  I  hear  you  exclaim; 
But  be  gentle,  my  friend,  ere  you  damn  it  to  fame." 
And  concerning  Manchester's  busy  industrial  leaders,  whom  the 
aristocracy  looked  upon  as  "servants  around,"  he  wrote: 


"  [Strickland],  Memoir  of Edmund  Cartwright,  pp.  84,  85;  An 

nual  Eegister,  1792,  Pt.  2,  p.  37  (Chron.);  Hansard's  Parliamentary  De- 
lates, Vol.  26,  p.  100;  Gisborne,  An  Enquiry  into  the  Duties  of  Men,  p.  571. 
For  a  similar  discussion,  based  on  the  view  that  ' '  in  the  school  of  Mr. 
Burke,  trade  and  manufactures  sound  meanly, ' '  see  J.  Wilson,  A  Letter, 
Commercial  and  Political,  pp.  32,  33. 


54  THE  RISE  OP  THE  GREAT  MANUFACTURERS 

"Such  are  England's  true  patriots,  her  prop  and  her  pride; 
They  draw  wealth  from  each  state  while  its  wants  are  sup- 
ply'd; 
"  To  mankind  all  at  large  they  are  factors  and  friends, 
And  their  praise  with  their  wares  reach  the  world's  farth- 
est ends. 


Is  it  then,  ye  vain  lordlings !  ye  treat  us  with  scorn, 

Because  titles  and  birth  your  own  fortunes  adorn? 

What  worth  to  j'ourselves  from  high  birth  can  accrue  ? 

Are  your  ancestors '  glories  entailed  upon  you  ? 

And  is  your  lazy  pomp  of  much  use  to  a  nation  ? 

Are  not  parks  and  wide  lawns  a  refined  devastation  ? 

But  peace — 't  is  presumption, — too  much  would  demean 

'em 
To  hold  converse  with  upstarts,  a  viilgus  profanem. 
Their  blood  in  pure  currents  thro'  ages  conveyed 
It  were  impious  to  taint  with  the  contact  of  trade. ' ' 

In  a  succeeding  letter  he  describes  the  early  vicissitudes  and 
later  triumphs  of  Industry  in  Venice  and  Holland,  and  in  pro- 
phetic strain  foresees  the  shifting  of  power  in  England  to  the 
industrialized  north  of  England : 

"At  length  (thanks  to  heav  n)  she  is  freed  from  her  thrall, 

And  her  weeds  has  thrown  off  to  reign  empress  o  'er  all. 

Yet  her  mansions  in  chief  she  has  fixed  on  our  shore, 

Where  freedom  and  justice  maintain  her  in  power. 

See  around — but  around  it  were  needless  to  roam ; 

For  the  climax  reversed,  we  may  look  nearer  home. 

For  thy  glory,  Mancunium,  these  tributes  are  paid. ' '  ^* 
The  new  manufacturers,  it  is  evident,  became  serious  rivals 

"Quoted  in  John  Harland,  Collectanea  Eelating  to  Manchester  and  Its 
Neighiorhood,  Vol  2,  in  Chetham  Society  Publications,  Vol.  72,  pp.  216-218. 


THE   GENERAL  CHAMBER  OF   MANUFACTURERS  55 

in  the  north  of  the  aristocracy,  and  began  early  to  assume  a 
position  as  a  distinct  and  important  group,  so  that  it  was  no 
longer  possible  for  "the  indolent  and  ignorant  Great"  to  class 
them  with  the  laborer  and  "confound  them  indiscriminately 
with  the  refuse  of  mankind. ' '  '^^ 

Many  of  the  manufacturers  had  indeed  emerged  from  what 
the  "Great"  were  often  disposed  to  look  upon  as  "the  refuse 
of  mankind."  But  their  rise  involved  a  strengthening  of  the 
barriers  already  existing  between  employers  and  employees  in 
manufacturing  enterprises ;  and  the  enlargement  of  these  barriers 
is  another  manifestation  of  the  early  differentiation  of  the  new 
manufacturers  from  other  groups.  The  idyllic  pictures  of  the 
domestic  system  of  manufacturing  painted  by  the  opponents  of 
the  factory  system  must  unfortunately  be  largely  discounted; 
and  in  lace  manufacturing,  in  hosiery  making,  in  mining,  and 
perhaps  most  notoriously  of  all,  in  agriculture,  conditions  were 
not  markedly  better  than  in  the  factories.  Indeed,  a  study  of 
the  sources  of  factory  labor  in  the  late  eighteenth  century  indi- 
cates that  the  condition  of  the  working  classes  during  the  period 
of  the  present  investigation  was  improved,  or  in  any  case  was 
prevented  from  becoming  worse,  by  means  of  the  opportunities 
afforded  by  the  factories.  ^^  But  aside  from  the  question  of  wel- 
fare, the  factory  laborers  in  any  case  began  to  assume  the  traits 
of  a  definite,  distinct  group ;  and  the  emergence  of  this  new  type, 
the  industrial  proletariat,  during  the  late  eighteenth  century, 
sharpened  the  contrast  between  employer  and  employee,  and 
further  differentiated  the  new  manufacturers  from  other  groups. 

The   clear   distinction   between   manufacturer   and   laborer 


"  W.  Kenriek,  An  Address  to  the  Artists  and  Manufacturers  of  Great 
Britain,  p.  20  (applied  by  the  author  in  a  slightly  different  but  similar 
sense). 

"  Such  a  study  has  been  made  by  the  writer,  but  the  results  of  the  study 
cannot  conveniently  be  incorporated  in  the  present  paper. 


56  THE  RISE  OF  THE  GREAT  MANUFACTURERS 

was  indeed  largely  the  result  of  the  transition  to  mechanical 
methods;  but  the  differences  between  manufacturer  and  mer- 
chant had  long  been  marked,  and  particularly  so  in  the  case  of 
merchants  in  foreign  commerce.  The  mercantile  class,  indeed, 
stood  next  in  status  and  influence  to  the  landed  aristocracy,  and 
both  looked  with  condescension  upon  the  petty  manufacturers  of 
the  older  type.  The  differentiation  continued  to  a  large  extent 
during  the  early  stages  of  the  rise  of  capitalistic  manufacturing, 
and  was  noted  by  Robert  Owen,  who  contrasted  the  early  cotton 
manufacturers  about  Manchester  with  "the  foreign  merchants, 
or  rather  the  merchants  in  the  foreign  trade."  A  similar  dis- 
tinction was  made  by  Robert  Peel  in  1785.  The  differentiation 
was  not  a  result  of  the  transition ;  it  tended  to  survive  from  an 
earlier  period.  But  it  did  not  survive  intact ;  and  herein  is  the 
significance  of  the  relations  between  merchants  and  manufactur- 
ers as  an  indication  of  the  rise  of  a  new  capitalistic  group  of 
manufacturers.  The  older  manufacturers,  of  a  petty  type,  found 
it  impossible  to  act  as  their  own  selling  agents  in  the  larger 
markets.  But  this  was  not  the  case  with  the  new  manufacturers, 
whose  enterprises  became  highly  capitalized  and  extensive  in 
scope.  They  began  in  consequence  to  supplant  the  merchants 
and  to  assume  on  their  own  account  the  functions  formerly 
monopolized  by  the  trading  class.  This  tendency  seems  to  have 
been  accelerated  by  the  disasters  to  commercial  houses  resulting 
from  the  American  Revolution  and  the  extensive  European  eco- 
nomic coalition  against  England  during  the  war.  Goods  were 
being  shipped  at  the  risk  of  the  merchants,  who  suffered  severely ; 
while  the  capital  invested  in  manufacturng  remained  intact. 
"Our  manufacturers,"  we  are  told  by  a  writer  in  1793,  "with 
their  skill  and  their  capital  unimpaired,  began  early  to  explore 
new  markets  and  to  improve  those  already  known ;  and  from  this 
date  [the  American  Revolution]  commenced  that  rapid  increase 
of  export  to  the  Continent  of  Europe Since  the  last  peace 


THE  GENERAL  CHAMBER  OF   MANUFACTURERS  57 

[1783]    our  manufacturers  have  almost  universally  acted 

as  merchants,  and  shipped  their  goods  on  their  own  account."  ^^ 

The  fact  that  the  new  manufacturers  were  able,  financially 
and  from  the  point  of  view  of  business  organization,  to  become 
their  own  factors  in  foreign  trade  indicates,  furthermore,  their 
differentiation  from  the  older  type  of  petty  manufacturers.  The 
contrast  between  the  two  groups  was  emphasized  by  the  contro 
versy  in  1789  over  the  Piece  Goods  Bill,  involving  a  duty  on  the 
sale  by  auction  of  certain  types  of  goods, — a  controversy  des- 
scribed  by  speakers  in  parliament  as  a  "competition  between  the 
small  and  the  great  manufacturers. ' '  A  similar  regrouping  and 
conflict  among  woollen  manufacturers  was  evidenced  by  the  pe- 
tition of  West  Riding  of  Yorkshire  clothiers  in  1794  against  the 
tendency  toward  capitalistic  organization  in  the  region  of  the 
modernized  woollen  industry.  The  petitioners  complained  that 
the  manufacture  of  cloth  "with  a  very  trifling  capital,  aided  by 
the  unremitting  labour  of  themselves,  their  wives  and  children, 
united  under  one  roof," — a  system  which  "has  so  happily  long 
prevailed  in  Yorkshire,  is  now  in  danger  of  being  broken  in  upon 
and  destroyed,"  by  a  new  system,  "supported  by  great  cap- 
itals, ' '  and  carried  on  in  ' '  large  factories. ' '  " 

An  exact  comparison  of  the  capital  invested  under  the  new 
organization  of  industry  with  the  capital  previously  invested  is 
impossible.  Ideas  of  what  constituted  capital  were  not  clearly 
defined.  But  by  a  study  of  the  impressions  made  upon  the  people 
of  the  time,  and  by  casual  statements  of  individual  incomes,  it  is 
evident  that  by  1790  there  was  an  unprecedented  development 
of  capitalistic  production.     Robert    Owen  wrote  of  "the  new 

"Li/e  of  Hohert  Owen,  Vol.  1,  p.  37;  Minutes  of  the  Evidence  taken 
before  a  Committee  of  the  House  of  Commons  (on  Irish  Resolutions,  1785), 
pp.  20,  21;  J.  Wilson,  A  Letter,  Commercial  and  Political,  pp.  21-23;  Aikin, 
Description  of  the  Country Hound  Manchester,  pp.  182,  184. 

''"  Parliament ur II  Eegister,  Vol.  26,  pp.  444-447  (1st  pt.) ;  Commons 
Journals,  Vol.  44,  pp.  544,  545,  Vol.  49,  pp.  276,  277. 


58  THE  RISE  OF  THE  GREAT  MANUFACTURERS 

great  cotton  lords,"  and  incidentally  of  one  man  in  particular, 
who,  about  1790,  "made  seventeen  thousand  pounds  of  profit  in 
each  of  two  successive  years, ' '  and  ' '  had  made  great  advances  to 
become  a  first-rate  and  leading  'cotton  lord.'  "  Various  cotton 
manufacturers  testified  in  1785  that  they  paid  from  £20,000  to 
£26,000  a  year  in  excise  taxes  alone.  It  was  stated  at  Arkwright  's 
death  in  1792  that  his  son  and  daughter  each  received  £200,000, 
and  that  his  cotton  factories  were  "worth  as  much  more."  The 
increase  of  wealth  among  the  woollen  manufacturers  in  the  more 
progressive  centers  was  also  very  marked.  An  estimate  was 
made  in  1791  that  manufacturers  then  living,  who  had  begun 
business  with  very  small  capitals,  were  then  worth  £500,000,  and 
in  one  or  two  cases,  not  specified,  worth  even  more.  Such  sums, 
in  contrast  with  the  petty  capitals  ordinarily  invested  in  manu- 
facturing, and  in  view  of  the  relatively  large  purchasing  value 
of  money,  are  of  no  mean  significance.  The  capital  invested  in 
manufacturing  enterprises  about  Birmingham  and  in  Stafford- 
shire by  such  men  as  Boulton  and  Wedgwood  was  also  very  ex- 
tensive. But  the  value  of  the  metal  industries,  and  even  of  the 
potteries,  was  perhaps  more  largely  a  gift  of  nature  than  a  crea- 
tion of  the  new  methods.  ''* 

The  wealth  of  the  new  manufacturers,  their  power  at  home 
and  in  foreign  commerce,  and  their  claims  to  public  recognition, 
were  matters  of  frequent  comment.  Arthur  Young,  who  seems 
never  to  have  lost  an  opportunity  to  contrast  the  skill,  enter- 
prise, and  scorn  of  legal  support  on  the  part  of  the  new  manu- 
facturers with  the  conservative,  petty,  and  monopolizing  spirit 


''^Life  of  Robert  Owen,  Vol.  1,  pp.  31,  40;  C.  S.  Parker,  Sir  Robert 
Peel,  Vol.  1,  p.  4;  Minutes  of  the  Evidence  taken  before  a  Committee  of 
the  House  of  Commons  (on  Irish  Eesolutions,  1785),  pp.  8,  18,  30;  Parlia- 
mentary History,  Vol.  25,  pp.  838,  852;  Gentleman's  Magazine,  Vol.  55^ 
Pt.  1,  p.  449;  Annual  Register,  1792,  Pt.  2,  p.  37  (Chron.)  ;  Annals  of  Ag- 
riculture, Vol.  17,  p.  114;  Tlwughts  on  the  Causes  of  the  Present  Failures, 
pp.  5,  7,  13,  14. 


THE   GENERAL  CHAMBER  OF   MANUFACTURERS  59 

of  the  older  types,  attributed  the  superiority  of  the  former  in 
part  to  machines  and  in  part  to  larger  capital.  Go  to  France,  he 
exclaims,  with  characteristic  exuberance,  and  look  for  such  a  man 
as  Arkwright,  and  you  will  look  in  vain.  "Can  one  man,  with  6 
or  £8,000  capital,  bear  the  rivalry  of  another,  with  £100,000?' ' «° 

It  was  inevitable  that  the  newly  risen  "lords"  of  industry 
should  demand  political  recognition.  In  the  debates  of  the  time 
on  the  corn  laws,  the  navigation  system,  taxation,  and  commer- 
cial laws  and  treaties  in  general,  their  economic  status  and  their 
interests  were  reiterated  in  various  forms.  In  connection  with 
the  debates  on  the  treaty  of  commerce  with  France  (1787),  it 
was  asserted  by  a  member  of  parliament  that  the  manufacturers 
were  mentioned  by  every  speaker.  The  statement  was  almost 
literally  true.  A  member  of  the  House  of  Lords  asserted  that, 
weighed  in  the  balance  with  men  of  such  ingenuity  and  enter- 
prise as  certain  of  the  new  manufacturers,  "ministers  and  anti- 
ministers  would  together  kick  the  beam."®^ 

In  view  of  their  status  and  the  recognition  of  their  import- 
ance, and  in  the  light  of  the  current  agitation  for  the  reform  of 
parliament,  it  is  naturally  to  be  supposed  that  the  new  manu- 
facturers would  have  sought  to  bring  about  a  change  in  the 
electoral  and  representative  sj'stem  such  as  would  have  given 
them  a  proportionate  voting  power  in  the  House  of  Commons. 
The  press  and  political  leaders  in  favor  of  a  reform  of  parlia- 
ment were  not  slow  to  seize  upon  the  growth  of  the  new  indus- 
trial class  as  an  argument  for  reform.  It  was  indignantly  as- 
serted that  "the  monied  interest  is  not  represented  at  all."    The 


**  In  Annals  of  Agriculture,  "Vol.  7,  pp.  272,  273.  See  also,  Josiah 
Tucker,  Four  Tracts  on  Political  and  Commercial  Subjects,  pp.  34,  35; 
Commons  Journals,  Vol.  36,  pp.  15,  239,  953,  954;  Thoughts  on  the  Causes 
of  the  Present  Failures,  p.  13 ;  Increase  of  Manufactures,  Commerce  and 
Finance,  pp.  40-47,  59,  ff. 

*^  Parliamentary  History,  Vol.  26,  p.  494;  Parliamentary  Register,  Vol 
18,  p.  34  (2d  part). 


60  THE  RISE  OF  THE  GREAT   MANUFACTURERS 

greatest  manufacturer  or  merchant  "has  not  the  privilege  of  a 
beggar  in  a  Cornish  borough.    Accordingly,  the  great  manufac 
turing  towns  of  Manchester,  Birmingham,  Sheffield,  &c.,  have 
no  representation  in  parliament."     Similar  contrasts  were  re- 
peatedly made  by  Wilkes,  Fox,  and  various  others,  *^ 

And  yet  it  is  a  singular  fact  that  the  manufacturers  them- 
selves were  indifferent  in  respect  to  reform.  During  the  period 
of  most  vigorous  and  most  general  agitation,  when  petitions  in 
large  numbers  from  nearly  every  part  of  the  country  assailed 
the  House  of  Commons,  the  new  industrial  centers  were  not 
enough  interested  to  send  petitions.  *^  The  absence  of  such  peti- 
tions, in  spite  of  the  many  appeals  to  these  regions  to  support 
reform,  afforded  the  opponents  of  reform  an  opportunity  which 
they  cleverly  utilized.  A  speaker  in  1783  (Mr.  Powys),  in  op- 
posing Pitt's  motion  for  a  reform  bill,  minimized  the  importance 
of  various  petitions.  "Manchester  and  Birmingham,  however, 
he  was  determined  to  hear,  and  to  pay  particular  attention  to. 
They  were  great  trading  towns,  and  their  petitions  ought  not  to 

be  slightly  passed  over,  in  the  usual  manner He  must 

have  the  whole  of  what  they  contained  explicitly  and  distinctly 
made  known  to  the  House,  and  for  that  purpose  desired  the 
clerk  to  read  them.  The  clerk  turned  over  and  over  again;  but 
no  such  petitions  being  found,  he  told  Mr.  Powys  that  neither 
Manchester,  Birmingham,  nor  Sheffield  were  in  the  list.  Not  m 
the  list!  said  Mr.  Powys — good  God,  what  a  misfortune!"  Lord 
North  also  called  attention  to  the  lack  of  petitions  from  these  re- 

'^  Political  Begister,  Vol.  2,  pp.  224,  225;  Parliamentary  Register,  Vol 
3,  p.  439;  Parliamentary  History,  Vol.  18,  p.  1292,  Vol.  23,  p.  863,  Vol.  24, 
p.  999,  Vol.  30,  p.  789. 

"Commons  Journals,  Vol.  39,  January  to  May,  1783;  Vol.  40,  Febru- 
ary to  April,  1785.  During  the  revival  of  reform  agitation  in  connection 
with  the  French  Revolution,  these  regions  continued  indifferent  to  the  move- 
ment. A  petition  from  Sheflfield  in  1793  {Parliamentary  History,  Vol.  30, 
p.  776)  is  an  exception,  but  the  tone  of  the  petition  indicates  that  its  basis 
was  not  economic  but  political— an  outgrowth  of  revolutionary  sympathies. 


THE  GENERAL  CHAMBER  OF   MANUFACTURERS  61 

prions,  and  twittod  thf  proponents  of  reform  for  having  taken 
p:reat  pains  to  secure  petitions  with  the  result  that  they  were 
ahle  only  to  say:  "What  horrid  sound  of  silence  doth  assail  mine 
ear?"" 

There  is  further  and  more  positive  evidence  of  the  indiffer- 
ence of  the  new  manufacturers  to  parliamentary  reform.  Even 
Fox.  who  at  the  time  was  representing  himself  as  a  champion 
of  the  manufacturers,  and  who  would  eagerly  have  availed  him- 
self of  any  evidence  of  their  interest  in  reform,  explained  their 
indifference  on  the  ground  that  they  were  "threatened  with 
ruin"  by  the  cotton  tax  of  1784  and  bv  the  Irish  Resolutions  of 
1785,  and  were  "on  the  eve  of  emigration"  to  Ireland  and  else- 
where, and  for  that  reason  considered  it  "no  time to  set 

about  making  improvements  in  the  constitution."  That  the  at- 
tempts of  politicians  to  gain  the  support  of  the  manufacturers  in 
political  issues  was  opposed  by  leading  manufacturers  is  indi- 
cated by  their  own  statements.  ^^ 

Furthermore,  there  is  evidence  that  the  industrial  classes 
at  Manchester  and  Birmingham  experienced  a  species  of  pride  in 
their  aloofness  from  politics,  other  than  the  promotion  of  eco- 
nomic policies  directly  involving  their  own  interests.  This  aloof- 
ness existed  in  local  as  well  as  national  politics.  These  cities  noi 
only  had  no  representation  in  the  House  of  Commons,  but  lacked 
as  well  the  chartered  privileges  prized  by  many  of  the  older 
cities.  They  were  governed  by  an  old  and  simple  organization, 
in  which  the  traditional  restrictions  of  charters  and  gilds  played 
no  part.  Manchester  was  ruled,  indeed,  bj'  the  steward  of  the 
Lord  of  the  Manor.  The  manufacturers  prided  themselves  on 
desiring  to  wear  no  "party-colored  robes."  and  it  was  frequently 


'*  Parliawrvarn  Bistnry,  Vol.  23,  p.  837;  Vol.  25,  pp.  458,  459.  See  alao 
Ibid.,  Vol.  23,  pp.  850,  851;  Vol.  24,  p.  988;  Vol.  25,  pp.  463,  466.  467. 

^  PnrUamentarii  ULstor)/,  Vol.  25,  pp.  466,  467;  The  Journal  and  Cor- 
respondence of  William,  Lord  Auckland,  Vol.  1,  pp.  92^  93. 


62  THE  RISE  OP  THE  GREAT   MANUFACTURERS 

held  that  the  lack  of  representation  and  the  absence  of  chartered 
and  gild  regulations  were  among  the  chief  advantages  of  these 
towns.  For  "thereby  the  attention  of  the  industrious  manufac- 
turer can  seldom  be  called  off,  by  the  interference  of  party  in- 
terest; and  that  grand  principle  which  should  ever  animate  a 
flourishing  commercial  establishment  universally  pervades  the 
great  body  of  the  inhabitants,  that  of  the  uninterrupted  appli- 
cation of  each  individual  who  composes  it  to  his  own  peculiar 
concerns."  ^* 

It  is  apparent  that  the  manufacturers  of  the  new  type  were 
little  interested  in  parliamentary  representation,  or  even  in  local 
politics.  For  the  most  part  they  desired  to  be  let  alone  and  al- 
lowed "uninterrupted  application"  of  their  energies  to  their 
"own  peculiar  concerns." 

But  when  their  "own  peculiar  concerns,"  that  is,  their  eco- 
nomic interests,  were  directly  involved  in  affairs  of  politics,  they 
were  not  slow  to  manifest  an  interest  in  political  life.  And  it  was 
this  connection  between  their  economic  interests  and  politics 
that  counteracted  the  individualistic  tendency  of  the  manufac- 
turers and  furnished  the  incentive  for  comprehensive  group  or- 
ganization. But  before  the  influence  of  politics  upon  the  general 
organization  of  the  manufacturers  is  discussed,  mention  should 
be  made  of  earlier  manifestations  of  the  tendency  toward  organ- 
ization. 

A  general  organization  was  not  without  basis  in  preexisting 
local  groups  of  manufacturers  and  merchants.  Woollen  manu- 
facturers of  York,  Lancaster  and  Chester  were  organized  with  a 
semi-official  status  in  1777,  and  later  the  woollen  manufacturers 


"^  [Ogden],  A  Description  of  Manchester,  pp.  93,  94;  A  Companion  to 
the  Leasoives,  etc.,  pp.  1.5,  16;  John  Campbell,  Political  Survey  of  Britain, 

Vol.  1,  p.  322;  Aikin,  Description  of  the  Country Bound  Manchester, 

p.  191;  Wright,  An  Address  to   Parliament,  pp.  26^  27;   Hammond, 

Town  Laborer,  p.  47. 


THE   GENERAL  CHAMBER  OF   MANUFACTURERS  63 

of  other  regions  were  allowed  to  organize  in  a  similar  manner. 
Iron  manufacturers  of  Salop,  Worcester,  Stafford  and  Warwick 
organized  and  held  quarterly  meetings  previous  to  the  general 
organization  of  the  manufacturers  in  1785.  Organized  bodies, 
made  up  in  some  places  of  merchants  and  manufacturers,  in 
other  instances  of  manufacturers  only,  existed  in  several  of  the 
leading  towns,  including  Manchester,  Birmingham  and  Liver- 
pool. " 

There  was  thus  a  local  basis  for  a  general  organization.  Sug- 
gestions, moreover,  for  a  general  organization  had  been  made 
before  1785,  and  independently  of  the  political  situation  in  that 
year,  out  of  which  the  actual  organization  emerged. 

One  of  these  suggestions  was  contained  in  a  petition  to  the 
House  of  Commons  as  early  as  1779.  The  organization  therein 
proposed  was  for  another  purpose,  however,  and  was  to  include 
only  the  cotton  and  linen  manufacturers.  This  petition  set 
forth  the  need  for  a  reorgiinization  of  capital  in  manufacturing. 
It  asserted  that  "a  manufactory  for  making  and  printing  cot- 
ton and  linen  cloths  upon  a  more  extensive  plan  than  has  hitherto 
been  practiced  would  be  of  great  benefit  to  the  kingdom;"  that 
for  such  a  purpose,  "a  very  large  capital  or  joint  stock"  is  neces- 
sary: that  "several  persons  are  willing  to  subscribe  considerable 
sums  of  money  for  the  purpose;"  that  the  existing  state  of  the 
law  would  make  the  subscribers  individually  responsible,  and 
would  impose  many  difficulties ;  and  that  a  bill  is  desired,  pro- 


"  Commons  Journals,  Vol.  37,  pp.  393,  773;  Vol.  39,  pp.  250,  455; 
Vol.  40.  pp.  78,  611,  647,  761,  867,  998,  1000,  1024;  Parliamentary  History, 
Vol.  25,  pp.  365,  840;  Parliamentary  Begister,  Vol.  21,  pp.  275,  276;  Min- 
utes of  the  Evidence  taken  before  a  Committee  of  the  House  of  Commons 
(on  Irish  Resolutions,  1785),  pp.  47,  70;  Annals  of  Agriculture,  Vol.  10, 
pp.  402-418;  Gazetteer  and  New  Daily  Advertiser,  March  9,  1785;  R.  Brooke, 
Liverpool  as  It  Was  during  the  last  Quarter  of  the  Eighteenth  Century, 
p.  232;  J.  A.  Langford,  A  Century  of  Birmingham  Life,  Vol.  1,  pp.  315, 
316,  359. 


64  THE  RISE  OF  THE  GRK^T   MANUFACTURERS 

viding  for  a  special  organization  "into  a  separate  and  distinct 
body  politic  and  corporate."  with  liberties  and  privileges  sub- 
ject to  regulation  by  parliament.  A  bill  to  this  effect  was 
ordered,  but  the  project  was  apparently  dropped,  and  the  or- 
ganization of  the  new  industries  assumed  a  form  highly  indi- 
vidualistic instead  of  in  accordance  with  the  older  type  of  quasi- 
public  chartered  company,  prevalent  in  commercial  enterprises. 
The  idea  was  revived  in  1788,  although  again  without  result,  by 
Manchester  manufacturers,  who  proposed  to  obtain  permission  to 
form  a  company  modeled  after  the  East  India  Company.  ^* 

Another  suggestion  for  a  national  organization,  broader  in 
scope  than  that  outlined  above,  was  made  in  1783.  At  that  time 
it  was  proposed  to  form  a  "Chamber  of  Commerce,"  which  was 
to  be  auxiliary  to  the  government,  furnishing  information  and 
advice  in  connection  with  commercial  and  industrial  policies.  It 
was  suggested,  apparently,  by  knowledge  of  the  chambers  of 
commerce  on  the  Continent.  ®^ 

Neither  of  these  ideas  was  carried  out.  The  actual  organ- 
ization included  manufacturers  other  than  those  in  the  cotton 
and  linen  industries,  as  Avas  proposed  in  1779,  but  it  included 
manufacturers  only,  excluding  merchants,  whom  the  plan  of 
1783  would  have  recognized  prominently.  It  was  not  concerned 
primarily  with  the  administration  of  business,  as  was  the  plan 
of  1779,  and  its  relation  to  the  government  was  different  from 
the  relations  proposed  in  both  of  the  earlier  plans. 

Organization  was  a  natural  accompaniment  of  the  rise  of 
the  new  manufacturers  to  a  position  of  wealth  and  recognized 
importance  in  the  economic  life  of  the  country.  But  the  indi- 
vidualistic tendencies  and  the  diversity  of  interests  among  th'i 
manufacturers  raised  up  serious  obstacles,  and  the  stimulus  nec- 

*' Commons  Journals,  \o\.  37,  pp.  108,  147;  Wheeler,  Manchester,  p.  175. 
^'' Plan  of  the  Chamber  of  Commerce,  a  work  reviewed  favorably  in  the 
Gentleman's  Magazine,  Vol.  53,  Pt.  1,  p.  331. 


THE   GENERAL   CHAMBER  OF   MANUFACTURERS  65 

essary  for  organized  unity  was  political.  The  needed  stimulus 
was  a  common  antagonism  to  the  excise  and  Irish  policies  of  the 
government  of  William  Pitt. 

In  1774,  Richard  Arkwright  &  Company  had  succeeded  in 
securing  the  modification  (14  George  III,  c.  72)  of  earlier  re- 
strictions on  the  manufacture,  sale,  and  use  of  cottons,  and  the 
industry  developed  with  unparalleled  rapidity.  Among  the 
most  urgent  and  most  difficult  of  the  problems  confronting  Pitt 
when  he  became  head  of  the  government  in  1783  was  the  reor- 
ganization of  finance.  As  a  part  of  his  fiscal  policy  he  secured 
the  enactment  in  1784  of  a  new  cotton  tax,-  which  considerably 
increased  the  amount  of  the  revenue  and  provided  for  methods 
of  collection  extremely  obnoxious  to  the  manufacturers.  This 
law  (24  George  III,  c.  40)  met  with  a  furious  storm  of  hostility, 
due  less  to  the  extent  of  the  taxation  than  to  "what  is  still 
worse,"  the  fact  that  their  ''liberty  and  property"  were  "fet- 
tered and  embarrassed."  They  objected  to  excise  laws  in  gen- 
eral, but  held  that  the  cotton  tax  was  the  most  harmful  of  ex- 
cises because  of  "the  amazing  number  of  excise  officers  neces- 
sary," whose  influx  tends  fatally  "to  disturb  the  harmony  and 
arrangements  of  their  manufactures,  to  deprive  them  of  per- 
sonal liberty,  and  the  free  exercise  of  their  property. ' '  ^° 

In  view  of  the  prevalence  of  high  taxes  and  of  excise  meth- 
ods not  essentially  different  from  those  embodied  in  the  cotton 
tax,  the  extreme  hostility  that  the  cotton  tax  aroused  is  explic- 


»« Commons  Journals,  Vol.  34,  pp.  435,  436,  496,  497,  708,  709,  805, 
Vol.  40,  pp.  642,  760,  819 ;  Minutes  of  the  Evidence  Taken  before  a  Commit- 
tee of  the  House  of  Commons  (on  Irish  Resolutions,  1785),  p.  66;  Minutes 
of  the  Evidence  Taken  before  a  Committee  of  the  House  of  Lords  (on  Irish 
Resolutions,  1785),  p.  222;  Parliamentary  History,  Vol.  25,  pp.  362,  365, 
366,  480;   Parliameniary  Register,  Vol.  17,  p.  425,  ff..  Vol.   18,  p.  91,  flf.; 

Wright,  An  Address  to   Parliament  on  the  Late  Tax,  etc.,  pp.  37-55, 

and  passim;  Gazetteer  and  New  Daily  Advertiser,  April   6,  15,   18,  1785; 
Dowell,  History  of  Taxation  and  Taxes  in  England,  Vol.  4,  pp.  343-346. 


66  THE  RISE  OP  THE  GREAT  MANUFACTURERS 

able  only  on  the  grounds  that  it  was  in  the  first  place,  ill  adapted 
to  the  new  and  complex  system  of  mechanical  and  large-scale 
production  in  the  cotton  industry;  and  in  the  second  place,  out 
of  harmony  with  the  rising  tide  of  individualism  and  laissez- 
faire,  which  was  rapidly  overwhelming  the  old  system  of  govern- 
mental relations  to  industry. 

Organized  opposition  to  the  excise  first  assumed  the  form  of 
a  committee  of  four  manufacturers,  including  Thomas  Walker,  a 
local  "Whig  leader,  delegated  by  Manchester  manufacturers  to 
represent  them  at  London  in  an  effort  to  secure  the  repeal  of  the 
law.  In  January.  1785.  Walker  and  one  of  his  associates  were 
brought  before  the  Committee  on  Trade  and  Foreign  Plantations 
and  questioned  concerning  Irish  relations,  in  an  effort  to  secure 
from  them,  without  their  knowledge  of  the  object  of  the  ques- 
tioning, statements  which  would  commit  them  to  the  policy  later 
presented  to  the  public  in  the  form  of  the  Irish  Resolutions.  The 
statements  made  by  the  manufacturers  on  this  occasion,  which 
they  understood  was  concerned  with  the  cotton  tax,  were  used  by 
the  government  in  an  attempt  to  discredit  the  manufacturers  by 
securing  evidence  of  inconsistency  and  self-seeking,  as  well  as 
to  cause  them  to  commit  themselves  unknowingly  to  the  princi- 
ples of  the  government's  Irish  policy.  Walker  and  his  associate 
were  later  repeatedly  confronted  with  quotations  from  their 
statements,  and  cross-examined,  and  treated  in  a  manner  which 
was  characterized  by  a  member  of  parliament  as  "most  scanda- 
lous."" 

By  such  methods  the  government  defeated  its  own  ends  with 


"^ Beport  of  the  Lords  of  the  Committee  of  Council  (on  Irish  Resolu- 
tions, 1785),  pp.  53-61;  Minutes  of  the  Evidence  taken  before  a  Committee 
of  the  House  of  Comm/)ns  (on  Irish  Resolutions,  1785),  pp.  6,  47-90;  Min- 
utes of  the  Evidence  tal-en  before  a  Committee  of  the  House  of  Lords  (on 
Irish  R-esolutions,   1785),  pp.   185-190;   Parliamentary  History,  Vol.   25,  p. 

837;  Aikin,  Description  of  the  Country Eound  Manchester,  pp.  263, 

264. 


THE  GENERAL  CHAMBER  OF  MANUFACTURERS  67 

respect  to  the  Irish  Resolutions  as  well  as  the  cotton  tax.  Man- 
chester manufacturers  were  needlessly  embittered,  and  were 
forced  to  associate  the  government's  fiscal  policy  at  home  with 
its  commercial  policy  toward  Ireland ;  and  they  were  provided 
with  a  raison  d'etre  for  their  skillful  utilization  of  the  influence 
of  the  whole  body  of  manufacturers  against  both  policies.  Hence- 
forth the  two  policies  were  inextricably  joined,  and  the  whole 
force  of  industrial  influence  was  directed  against  both. 

The  Irish  question,  ever  a  thorn  in  the  side,  was  rendered 
acutely  piercing  in  the  ease  of  Pitt's  government,  1783-1785,  by 
pressure  of  disturbed  conditions  inherited  from  the  preceding 
ministry.  Pitt,  recognizing  Ireland's  newly  acquired  legislative 
independence,  was  at  once  confronted  with  the  problem  of  eco- 
nomic reorganization.  His  policy,  formulated  in  the  so-called 
Irish  Resolutions  or  Propositions,  came  from  the  Irish  parlia- 
ment for  consideration  in  the  English  House  of  Commons  in 
February,  1785. 

According  to  Pitt's  own  interpretation,  his  policy  embraced 
two  ''capital  points,"  namely,  the  admission  of  Ireland  to  par- 
ticipation in  England's  colonial  and  foreign  trade  (with  certain 
restrictions),  and  the  mutual  reduction  of  tariffs  on  manufac- 
tured goods  to  the  rate  in  that  kingdom  where  existing  duties 
were  the  lower.  Various  important  exceptions  however,  were 
made  in  favor  of  the  landed  class,  merchant^  and  older  types 
of  manufacturers,  while  no  attempt  apparently  was  made  to  con 
ciliate  the  newer  manufacturers.  For  instance,  the  Irish  had 
equal  access  to  the  raw  materials  and  the  implements  and  ma- 
chines used  in  the  cotton  manufacture,  whereas  English  wool  of 
all  descriptions,  fuller's  earth  and  other  materials,  and  the  tools 
and  utensils  used  in  the  manufacture  of  wool  were  denied  export 
to  Ireland.  The  chief  advantage  to  be  gained  by  Ireland  was 
by  a  provision  that  importations  from  foreign  states  were  to  be 
"regulated  from  time  to  time  in  each  kingdom  on  such  terms 


68  THE  RISE  OF  THE  GREIAT   MANUFACTURERS 

as  may  afford  an  effectual  preference  to  the  importation  of  simi- 
lar articles  the  growth,  product  or  manufacture  of  the  other." 
This  provision,  though  stated  in  general  terms,  was  primarily- 
intended  to  secure  the  importation  of  Irish  linens  into  England 
to  the  exclusion  of  foreign  linens ;  and  the  English  cotton,  iron, 
and  pottery  manufacturers  resisted  this  extremely  illiberal  pol- 
ic.v  of  exclusion  on  the  ground  that  it  hindered  reciprocal  com- 
mercial relations  with  those  countries  which  were  seeking  a  linen 
market  in  England.  ^^ 

The  Irish  Resolutions,  like  the  cotton  tax,  encountered  the 
fierce  hostility  of  the  newer  manufacturers.  The  exclusion  of 
foreign  linens  to  the  prejudice  of  reciprocal  commerce  was  but 
one  of  many  reasons  for  opposition  as  set  forth  by  the  manu- 
facturers. Pitt  himself,  in  his  private  letter  of  January  6,  1785, 
to  the  Duke  of  Rutland,  Lord  Lieutenant  of  Ireland,  ®'  quite 
frankly  admitted  the  probability  of  the  shifting  to  Ireland  of 
certain  English  industries  in  consequence  of  the  Resolutions. 
Many  of  the  manufacturers  shared  Pitt's  view — an  attitude  ill- 


"  The  text  of  the  Resolutions  as  they  passed  the  Irish  parliament  anJ 
as  outlined  above  may  be  found  in  Parliamentary  History,  Vol.  25,  pp.  312- 
314.  For  text  of  the  revised  Resolutions,  as  amended  in  the  English  House 
of  Commons,  see  Ibid.,  pp.  934-942.  The  Resolutions  were  explained  and  in- 
terpreted in  Beport  of  the  Commissioners  of  Excise  to the  House  of 

Commons,  in  Report  of  the  Commissioners  for His  Majesty  's  Cus- 
toms, both  published  in  1785,  and  in  Correspondence  between  the  Right 
Honble.  William  Pitt  and  Charles,  Dulce  of  Rutland,  Lord  Lieutenant  of 
Ireland,  1181-1787,  particularly  in  Pitt's  letter  of  January  6,  1785,  pp.  55- 
75.  See  also  J.  H.  Rose,  William  Pitt  and  National  Revival,  c.  11,  and 
J.  G.  S.  MacNeill,  Constitutional  and  Parliamentary  History  of  Ireland  till 
the  Union,  c.  17.  Concerning  the  attitude  of  the  manufacturers  toward  the 
exclusion  of  foreign  linens,  see  Minutes  of  the  Evidence  Taken  before  a 
Committee  of  the  House  of  Commons  (on  Irish  Resolutions,  1785),  pp.  181- 
183 ;  Minutes  of  the  Evidence  Taken  before  a  Committee  of  the  House  of 
Lords  (on  Irish  Resolutions,  1785),  pp.  150-152,  176,  177;  Lords  Journals, 
Vol.  37,  pp.  312,  323,  324;  Gazetteer  and  New  Daily  Advertiser,  March  23, 
1785. 

•*  Cited  in  the  preceding  footnote. 


THE  GENERAL  CHAMBER  OF  MANUFACTURERS  69 

adapted  to  reconciling  them  to  the  government's  policy.  Such  a 
view  of  the  eflfect  of  the  Resolutions  was  promoted  by  the  fact 
that  "so  long  as  water  power  was  the  chief  agent  employed  in 
manufacturing  [and  it  was  of  course  the  chief  agent  in  1785], 
Ireland  offered,  in  some  directions,  great  attractions  to  cap- 
ital."^* These  attractions,  combined  with  alleged  discrimina- 
tions in  policy  in  favor  of  certain  manufacturers  in  Ireland,  were 
set  forth  at  length  by  the  manufacturers  as  the  basis  of  opposi- 
tion to  the  Resolutions. "' 

The  most  important  of  the  various  arguments  urged  against 
the  Irish  Resolutions  by  the  manufacturers  was  the  contrast  in 
the  tax  policies  of  the  two  kingdoms.  Pitt  himself  admitted  the 
force  of  the  argument,  first  in  private,  and  at  length  in  consent- 
ing to  the  modification  of  the  cotton  tax.  ^® 

The  vital  connection  between  the  Irish  Resolutions  and  the 
question  of  taxation,  particularly  the  excise  laws,  was  set  forth 
in  resolutions  of  Manchester  manufacturers,  April  11,  1785. 
These  resolutions  provided  for  the  appointment  of  delegates  to 
go  to  Ireland  to  negotiate  for  the  transfer  of  the  cotton  indus- 
try to  that  country.  The  manufacturers  desired  "to  justify 
their  conduct  to  their  countrymen,  for  adopting  a  measure  so  re- 
pugnant to  their  feeling,  and  so  ruinous  to  the  nation,  as  trans- 
planting the  cotton  manufacture."  In  order  to  do  this,  they  set 
forth   the  evils   of  the   excise  laws,    and  contrasted    "these  de- 


•*  Cunningham,  Growth  of  English  Industry  and  Commerce  in  Modern 
Times,  Pt,  2,  p.  846,  n. 

•*  These  arguments  are  to  be  found  in  the  petitions  of  the  manufac- 
turers in  the  Journals  of  the  two  houses;  in  the  pamphlet  literature  of  the 
time ;  and  particularly  in  Report  of  the  Lords  of  the  Committee  of  Coun- 
cil    Eclating  to  Trade  and  Foreign  Plantations,  Minutes  of  the  Evi- 
dence Taken  before  a  Committee  of  the  House  of  Commons,  and  Minutes 
of  the  Evidence  Taken  before  a  Committee  of  the  House  of  Lords  (on  Irish 
Resolutions,  1785). 

•*  Correspondence  between   Pitt  and Butland,  pp.  62-64; 

Parliamentary  History,  Vol.  25,  pp.  323,  324,  338. 


70  THE  RISE  OP  THE  GREAT  MANUFACTURERS 

structive  and  obnoxious  systems"  with  the  "unbounded  pro- 
fusion" of  advantages  offered  by  the  gcvernments  of  both  king- 
doms to  manufacturers  in  Ireland.  Various  manufacturers  re- 
ceived attractive  offers  from  Ireland,  and  many  of  them  testi- 
fied before  parliament  that  if  the  Irish  Eesolutions  were  adopted, 
they  intended  to  transfer  their  enterprises  to  Ireland.  ^^ 

In  the  case  of  the  cotton  manufacturers,  these  threats  were 
used  in  part  as  weapons  against  the  cotton  tax.  ''The  Manches- 
ter people,"  wrote  the  Marquis  of  Lansdowne,  "have  contrived 
artfully  enough  to  confound  the  taxes  lately  imposed  on  manu- 
factures with  the  Irish  propositions. ' '  It  has  already  been  seen, 
however,  that  the  connection  was  virtually  forced  upon  them 
in  the  first  place  b}'  the  government.  ^^  The  connection  between 
the  two  policies  having  been  made,  it  was  cleverly  seized  upon 
by  the  cotton  manufacturers  and  made  the  means  of  uniting  the 
manufacturers  in  general  against  the  tax  on  cottons  as  well  as 
against  the  proposed  Irish  settlement.  Out  of  this  situation, 
which  gave  to  the  manufacturers  a  feeling  of  common  interest, 
arose  the  General  Chamber  of  Manufacturers  of  Great  Britain. 

This  organization  was  not  limited  to  the  new  capitalistic 
manufacturers,  but  the  initiative  and  the  moving  force  were 
with  them.  The  new  capitalistic  industries  consisted  in  the  main 
of  three  groups:  Wedgwood's  Staffordshire  potteries;  the  iron 
foundries  and  plants  about  Birmingham ;  and  the  manufacturing 


^''Gazetteer  and  New  Daily  Advertiser,  February  26,  April  15^  18,  1785; 
Minutes  of  the  Evidence  Taken  before  a  Committee  of  the  House  of  Com- 
mons (on  Irish  Eesolutions,  1785),  pp.  14,  16,  17,  19,  21,  22,  29,  32,  49-51, 
59,  60,  66,  67,  76;  Minutes  of  the  Evidence  TaTcen  before  a  Committee  of 
the  House  of  Lords   (on  Irish  Eesolutions,  1785),  pp.   6,  10,  57,   172-174; 

Wright,  An  Address  to    Parliament,  p.  60;   Gentleman's  Magazine. 

Vol.  55,  Pt.  1,  pp.  234,  449. 

°*  See  above,  pp.  66,  67;  Rutland  MSS.  (Historical  MSS.  Commission), 
Vol.  3,  pp.  201,  202 ;  Minutes  of  the  Evidence  Taken  before  a  Committes 
of  the  House  of  Commons  (on  Irish  Eesolutions,  1785),  p.  89;  Gazetteer 
and  New  Daily  Advertiser,  April  18,  May  2,  1785. 


THE  GENERAL  CHAMBER  OP   MANUFACTURERS  71 

and  printing  of  cotton  centering  at  Manchester.  Each  of  these 
groups  participated  spontaneously  and  in  a  measure  independ- 
ently in  the  movement  for  a  general  organization. 

The  part  played  by  Josiah  Wedgwood  seems  to  have  been 
the  result  of  his  hostility  to  the  Irish  Resolutions.  On  February 
21,  1785,  he  wrote  to  Matthew  Boulton,  saying  that  he  intended 
to  recommend  the  organization  of  "a  Committee  of  Delegates 
from  all  the  manufacturing  places  of  England  and  Scotland  to 
meet  and  sit  in  London  all  the  time  the  Irish  commercial  affairs 
are  pending,"  and  he  was  not  without  hope  that  such  a  body 
would  be  useful  "upon  others  as  well  as  the  present  occasion." 
He  had  his  designer,  John  Flaxman,  make  drawings  "for  the 
manufacturers'  arms,"  and  enlisted  the  interest  of  Lord  Shef- 
field, who  was  a  bitter  opponent  of  the  Irish  Resolutions.  ®® 

The  share  of  Birmingham  in  the  movement  for  organiza- 
tion is  less  clear.  The  manufacturers  there  were  organized,  how- 
ever, and  their  local  organization  sent  circular  letters  to  the  var- 
ious manufacturing  towns  of  the  region,  suggesting  cooperation 
to  oppose  the  government's  excise  policy.  ^°° 

But  the  chief  influence  in  the  movement  was  exerted  by 
the  cotton  manufacturers.  This  was  recognized  later  by  the 
Birmingham  Chamber,  which  called  upon  Birmingham  to  emu- 
late Manchester  in  its  liberal  support  of  the  General  Chamber. 
The  cotton  manufacturers  had  been  active  at  London  for  some 
time  in  seeking  the  repeal  of  the  cotton  tax.  Thomas  Walker 
and  three  other  Manchester  manufacturers  had  been  delegated  by 
Manchester  to  work  for  its  repeal.  When  the  Irish  Resolutions 
came  up  for  discussion,  and  opposition  developed,  the  Manches- 
ter manufacturers  saw  their  opportunity  and  cleverly  seized  it. 
On  March  3,  1785,  a  general  meeting  of  fustian  manufacturers 
was  held  at  Manchester  to  consider  the  two  questions — the  tax 

»*Meteyard,  Life  of  Josiah  Wedgwood,  Vol.  2,  pp.  485,  495,  496,  539. 
^'^Parliamentary  History,  Vol.  25,  pp.  365,  366. 


72  THE  RISE  OP  THE  GREAT  MANUFACTURER* 

and  the  Irish  Propositions.  At  this  meeting  they  resolved  to 
"correspond  with  every  manufacturing  body  in  the  kingdom," 
in  order  to  secure  cooperation  against  what  they  designated  the 
fatal  combination  of  oppressive  taxes  at  home  and  commercial 
favoritism  to  the  Irish.  It  was  further  resolved  that  the  action 
taken  at  the  meeting  should  be  published  in  the  papers  through- 
out the  manufacturing  region.  "^ 

Results  were  soon  manifest.  On  March  12,  it  was  reported 
that  "manufacturers  are  assembling"  at  London  from  various 
parts  of  the  kingdom.  A  meeting  had  already  been  held  in  Lon- 
don, at  the  London  Tavern,  on  March  7 ;  and  the  cotton  manu- 
facturers, having  the  advantage  of  a  committee  of  delegates  al 
ready  in  touch  with  the  situation,  secured  action  at  this  meet- 
ing which  at  the  outset  connected  the  Irish  policy  with  the  ques- 
tion of  excise,  and  committed  the  manufacturers  to  a  joint  con- 
sideration of  the  two  questions.  Another  meeting  was  called, 
which  "all  manufacturers"  were  requested  to  attend,  but  spe- 
cial invitation  was  accorded  the  representatives  of  the  leading 
industrial  centers.  ^°^ 

During  the  succeeding  week,  a  committee  was  appointed, 
with  Wedgwood  as  chairman.  Associated  with  Wedgwood  were 
John  Silvester  and  Richard  Walker,  both  of  Manchester,  and 
Robert  Peel,  the  great  Lancashire  cotton  printer.  On  March  12 
this  committee  met  and  issued  a  call  for  another  general  meet- 
ing for  March  14.  At  the  meeting  convened  on  the  14th,  there 
was  organized  a  definite  body  to  be  called  the  Chamber  of  Man- 
ufacturers of  Great  Britain,  and  to  consist  of  "each  member 


'"Langford,   A    Century  of  Birmingham   Life,   Vol.    1,   pp.   328,   329, 

Aikin,  Description  of  the  Country Eound  Manchester,  pp.  263,  264; 

Minutes  of  the  Evidence  taken  before  a  Committee  of  the  House  of  Com- 
mons (on  Irish  Resolutions,  1785),  p.  47;  Minutes  of  the  Evidence  taken 
before  a  Committee  of  the  House  of  Lords  (on  Irish  Eesolutiona,  1785). 
p.  186;  Gazetteer  and  New  Daily  Advertiser,  March  9,  1785. 

"'  Gazetteer  and  New  Daily  Advertiser,  March  9,  12,  1785. 


THE   GENERAL  CHAMBER  OP   MANUFACTURERS  73 

of  a  commercial  committee,  being  a  manufacturer."  It  was  re- 
solved unanimously  that  the  society  ' '  do  not  cease  with  the  pres- 
ent business,"  and  to  that  end  a  permanent  secretary,  Henry 
Smeathman,  was  appointed,  and  steps  were  taken  to  perfect  the 
organization.  ^°^ 

At  the  various  meetings  of  the  Chamber,  the  chairmanship 
was  held  by  different  men.  At  a  meeting  of  March  10,  previous 
to  the  formal  organization,  the  presiding  officer  was  Sir  Herbert 
Mackworth,  a  manufacturer  who,  as  a  member  of  parliament  and 
a  man  of  social  standing,  lent  "respectability"  to  the  organiza- 
tion, an  attribute  deemed  essential  to  the  Chamber's  influence. 
The  chairman  of  the  meeting  of  March  14  was  Wedgwood,  who, 
though  not  a  member  of  the  aristocracy,  was  nevertheless  in- 
vested with  a  respectability  denied  to  the  more  "vulgar"  and 
less  artistic  textile  manufacturers.  The  meetings  of  March  16 
and  17  were  presided  over  by  Richard  Walker  of  Manchester. 
On  March  22,  the  chairman  was  Matthew  Boulton  of  Birming- 
ham. It  is  important  to  note  that  at  this  meeting,  even  more 
than  at  earlier  meetings,  the  prominence  of  the  cotton  men  was 
manifest.  Mr.  Silvester  of  Manchester,  as  head  of  the  committee 
on  organization,'  reported  for  the  committee  a  plan  of  organi- 
zation which  was  adopted.  He  stated  that  the  committee  had 
"received  many  letters  from  various  parts  of  the  kingdom,  ap- 


"^  British  Merchant  for  1787,  p.  10;  Gazetteer  and  New  Daily  Adver 
tiser,  March  9,  14,  15,  16,  1785.  See  also  Meteyard,  Life  of  Josiah  Wedg- 
wood, Vol.  2,  pp.  540,  541,  where  it  is  intimated  that  the  organization  was 
begun  and  directed  almost  exclusively  by  Wedgwood.  It  is  stated  that  Nich- 
olson, an  employee  of  Wedgwood,  was  secretary,  and  that  Chisholm,  Wedg- 
wood's private  secretary,  formulated  the  regulations  governing  the  Cham- 
ber. It  is  evident  that  Meteyard  has  grossly  overemphasized  Wedgwood's 
part.  Nicholson  was  temporary  secretary  during  an  early  meeting,  and  on  & 
later  occasion  acted  for  the  secretary  (see  Gazetteer  and  New  Daily  Ad- 
vertiser, February  19,  21,  1787),  but  the  first  permanent  secretary  was 
Henry  Smeathman ;  and  the  permanent  organization  was  effected,  as  will 
be  seen  below,  by  a  committee  presided  over  by  a  Manchester  manufacturer. 


74  THE  RISE  OF  THE  GREAT   MANUFACTURERS 

proving  highly  of  the  institution  of  a  Chamber  of  Manufactur- 
ers of  Great  Britain. ' '  The  committee  recommended,  he  further 
reported,  that  the  Chamber  promote,  by  means  of  circular  letters 
and  in  other  ways,  the  organization  of  local  bodies  of  manufac- 
turers, whose  common  interests  should  find  expression  in  the  cen 
tral  body.  To  distinguish  the  local  chambers  from  the  national 
organization,  it  was  recommended  that  the  word  "general"  be 
prefixed  to  th^e  title  of  the  Chamber.  The  committee's  recom- 
mendations were  unanimously  adopted.  It  was  decided,  also, 
that  the  body  should  be  a  permanent  organization. 

At  later  meetings,  the  committee  presented  further  details 
of  organization,  which  the  Chamber  adopted.  The  body  was  to 
consist  of  manufacturers  only,  and  the  membership  fee  was 
fixed  at  one  guinea  per  year.  It  was  to  have  a  permanent  sec- 
retary, and  standing  committees,  and  upon  these  the  burden  of 
work  was  to  fall.  Permanent  quarters  were  arranged  for  at  38 
Fenchureh  Street.  It  was  declared  repeatedly  to  be  strictly  non- 
partisan, and  its  object  was  set  forth  as  the  promotion  of  manu- 
facturing, which  was  "independent  of  party."  The  member* 
were  national  representatives  of  local  manufacturing  industries, 
"delegated  by  their  several  communities  for  the  purpose  of 
watching  over  their  interests."  The  manufacturers,  by  means 
of  the  Chamber,  were  to  form  "one  great  chain,"  pledged  to  the 
strengthening  of  each  link.  Again,  the  object  was  set  forth  as 
that  of  ' '  watching  over  their  interests  at  large  as  one  aggregate ; 
and  of  furnishing  government,  if  required,  such  impartial  and 
true  information  as  they  need  from  time  to  time,  for  the  protec- 
tion of  the  commerce  and  manufactures  of  the  empire  at  large." 
But  while  the  purposes  were  thus  set  forth  as  being  comprehen- 
sive and  permanent,  the  initial  unifying  force  was  hostility  to 
specific  governmental  policies.  ^°* 

^''*  Gazetteer  and   New   Daily   Advertiser,   March   23,   April   6,   May   2, " 
1785;    British   MercTiant   for  1787,  pp.    10,   11;    Meteyard,   Life   of  Josiah 
Wedgwood,  Vol.  2,  pp.  540,  541. 


THE   GENERAL  CHAMBER  OF   MANUFACTURERS  75 

As  a  result  of  the  organized  activities  of  the  manufacturers 
in  opposition  to  the  Irish  Resolutions  and  the  cotton  tax,  a  flood 
of  more  than  sixty  petitions  deluged  the  House  of  Commons — 
petitions  usually  representing  large  groups  of  manufacturers, 
very  similar  in  content,  and  commonly  denouncing  the  English 
system  of  taxation  as  well  as  the  proposed  readjustment  of  Irish 
relations.  The  government  first  yielded  on  the  excise  issue.  On 
May  10,  a  bill  was  passed  repealing  the  more  obnoxious  features 
of  the  law  of  1784.  The  cotton  manufacturers  continued,  nev- 
ertheless, in  opposition,  in  company  with  the  other  members  of 
the  General  Chamber,  and  Pitt  again  yielded  by  introducing  the 
Resolutions  in  a  new  form,  including  many  modifications  de- 
manded by  the  manufacturers.  Immediately  thereafter  the  Gen- 
eral Chamber  held  a  general  meeting  and  resolved  to  notify  its 
constituents  and  ask  them  to  petition  for  further  delay.  Then 
followed  a  second  deluge  of  petitions,  conforming  closely  to  the 
recommendations  of  the  General  Chamber.  Although  Pitt  sh 
cured  the  adoption  of  the  revised  Resolutions,  the  revision  itself 
was  a  virtual  defeat  at  home  and  the  cause  of  the  not  unexpected 
rejection  of  the  entire  plan  in  Ireland.  Thus  ended  in  defeat, 
at  the  hands  of  the  General  Chamber  of  Manufacturers,  a  policy 
which  had  engaged  the  utmost  power  of  the  minister,  and  which 
had  been  regarded  by  him  as  vital  to  himself  and  to  the 
empire.  ^°' 

A  significant  result  of  the  struggle  over  the  excise  and  the 
Irish  Resolutions  was  the  focusing  of  attention  on  the  problem 
of  liberalizing  commercial  policy.  So  far  as  Anglo-Irish  rela- 
tions alone  were  concerned,  the  Irish  Resolutions  themselves 
tended  to  break  down  the  barriers  of  the  old  system,  but  the 
policy,  as  was  previouslj'  stated,  was  not  without  serious  limita 

""'  Commons  Journals,  Vol.  40,  pp.  576-1088  (texts  of  the  petitions  re- 
ferred to  above)  ;  Gazetteer  and  New  Daily  Advertiser,  March  9,  23,  April 
6,  15,  18,  May  14,  1785;  Parliamentary  History,  Vol.  25,  p.  362. 


76  THE  RISE  OF  THE  GREAT  MANUPACTUREhS 

tions  of  a  monopolistic  nature.  The  newer  manufacturers  con- 
demned in  particular  the  preferential  clause  excluding  foreign 
linens  as  out  of  keeping  with  desired  reciprocity.  This  attitude 
of  the  manufacturers,  while  occasioning  hostility  between  them 
and  the  government  so  far  as  the  Irish  Resolutions  were  con- 
cerned, was  in  reality  in  accord  with  Pitt's  own  growing  convic- 
tion of  the  need  for  relaxing  restrictions  in  foreign  commerce. 
In  consequence,  the  conflict,  bitter  as  it  was,  pointed  the  way  to 
a  reconciliation  between  the  government  and  the  new  group,  rap- 
idly rising  to  industrial  preeminence. 

An  occasion  for  reconciliation  w^as  furnished  by  the  revision 
of  commercial  relations  with  France.  The  treaty  of  commerce, 
signed  on  September  26,  1786,  marked  a  notable  advance  in  the 
direction  of  commercial  liberalism.  It  provided  for  reciprocal 
liberty  of  residence,  travel,  the  purchase  and  use  of  consumption 
goods,  and  the  practice  of  religious  faiths,  within  the  European 
dominions  of  the  two  countries,  "freely  and  securely,  without 
license  or  passport,  general  or  special,  by  land  or  by  sea."  The 
principal  commercial  advantages  gained  by  France  were  in  re- 
spect to  wines  and  other  commodities  wherein  she  excelled  by 
virtue  of  superior  soil,  climate  and  natural  resources.  The  Eng- 
lish, on  the  other  hand,  benefitted  chiefly  by  means  of  reductions 
in  tariffs  on  articles  in  which  England  excelled  not  because  of 
natural  advantages  but  because  of  superior  skill  and  enterprise, 
particularly  cottons,  irons,  and  pottery.  "" 

The  relations  of  the  manufacturers  to  the  treaty  with  France 
as  well  as  to  the  Irish  and  excise  policies  were  directed  by  the 
General  Chamber  of  Manufacturers.  Pitt  publicly  sought  to  be- 
little the  Chamber,  but  its  power  aroused  in  reality  his  fear  and 

"°  The  texts  of  the  treaty  and  the  supplementary  convention  are  in 
Parliamentary  History,  Vol.  26,  pp.  233-255,  268-272,  and  in  Commons 
Journals,  Vol.  42,  pp.  266-272,  289,  290.  The  treaty  is  also  printed  as  an 
appendix  to  the  first  volume  of  the  Journal  and  Correspondence  of  William, 
Lord  Auckland. 


THE   GENERAL  CHAMBER  OF   MANUFACTURERS  77 

hostility-  rather  than  his  contempt.  In  connection  with  the  for- 
mulation of  the  treaty,  he  directed  Eden,  the  negotiator,  to  listen 
to  the  members  of  the  Chamber  individually,  and  to  conciliate 
them,  but  to  give  the  Chamber  collectively  as  little  "employ- 
ment or  encouragement  as  possible."  The  members  of  the 
Chamber,  however,  preferred  to  deal  with  the  treaty  as  a  group. 
Numerous  committee  meetings  were  held,  the  Lords  of  Trade 
were  interviewed,  answers  to  various  questions  were  secured  from 
Mr.  Eden,  who  negotiated  the  treaty,  and  extensive  correspond- 
ence and  interviews  were  conducted  with  manufacturers  in  var- 
ious parts  of  the  country.  The  letters  received  were  in  general 
favorable  to  the  treaty,  though  there  is  evidence  that  special 
weight  was  given  to  the  sentiments  of  the  cotton,  iron  and  pottery 
manufacurers,  who  were  pnthusiastic  in  support  of  the  treaty, 
and  who  had  been  from  the  first  the  chief  factors  in  the  Cham- 
ber. On  the  basis  of  its  investigations,  the  committee  in  charge 
of  the  Chamber's  relations  to  the  treaty  met  on  December  9, 
1786,  at  the  Chamber's  house  on  Fenchurch  Street  and  adopted 
resolutions  favoring  the  treaty.  It  was  resolved  that  ' '  from  the 
best  information  the  committee  can  collect  from  the  Chambers  of 
Commerce  and  Manufactures"  in  various  parts  of  the  coun- 
try, and  from  other  sources,  the  treaty,  based  upon  "liberal  and 
equitable  principles,  promises  to  be  advantageous  to  their  manu- 
facturing and  commercial  interests  by  opening  a  new  source  of 
fair  trade  to  both  nations."  and  by  "securing  a  continuance  of 
peace  and  good  offices  between  two  great  and  neighboring  na- 
tions, so  advantageously  situated  for  availing  themselves  of  the 
blessings  of  peace  and  an  extended  commerce."  ^°^ 


"''Parliamentary  History,  Vol.  26,  pp.  378-382;  Parliamentary  Begis- 
ter,  Vol.  21,  pp.  162-164;  Journal  and  Correspondence  of  William,  Lord 
Auckland,  Vol.  1,  p.  91;  Langforr],  A  Century  of  Birmingham  Life,  Vol.  1, 
pp.  327,  329;  Gazetteer  and  Neir  Daily  Advertiser,  December  12,  14,  1786, 
January  12,  February  7,  12,  13,  17,  19,  21,  1787. 


78  THE  RISE  OF  THE  GREAT  MANUFACTURERS 

Although  the  committee  claimed  that  its  action  was  based 
upon  the  carefully  ascertained  views  of  the  constituents  of  the 
General  Chamber,  the  resolutions  of  December  9,  when  pub- 
lished, gave  rise  to  a  controversy  which  divided  the  organiza- 
tion into  hostile  factions.  Josiah  Wedgwood  and  the  Manches- 
ter and  Birmingham  manufacturers  had  been  responsible  for  the 
organization  and  early  activities  of  the  Chamber,  and  they  con- 
tinued to  direct  its  policies.  It  was  claimed  by  the  opponents  of 
the  treaty  that  the  resolutions  of  December  9  were  not  repre- 
sentative of  the  sentiments  of  the  manufacturers  generally,  and 
the  resolutions  were  ascribed  to  the  fact  that  "the  Manchester, 
Birmingham  and  Staffordshire  manufacturers  have,  of  course, 
great  sway  in  that  body."  Other  manufacturers,  it  was  de- 
clared, opposed  the  treaty,  and  had  trusted  the  General  Chamber 
to  represent  their  viev/s.  But  since  those  favoring  the  treaty  con- 
trolled the  Chamber,  the  opposing  manufacturers,  having  been 
misrepresented  till  the  treaty  had  been  signed,  "do  not  know 
where  to  communicate  their  thoughts,  or  how  to  collect  the  gen- 
eral sense  and  convey  it  with  force  to  the  minister."  "* 

But  they  resolved  not  to  .yield  without  a  struggle.  In  order 
to  give  effect  to  their  views  in  the  approaching  vote  on  the  treaty 
in  parliament,  they  decided  to  contest  the  control  of  the  General 
Chamber  by  the  cotton,  iron  and  pottery  men.  On  February  6  a 
general  meeting  of  the  Chamber  was  held,  and  a  debate  of  several 
hours  took  place  on  the  propriety  of  the  resolutions  of  December 
9  favoring  the  treaty.  A  new  committee  was  appointed  to  secure 
further  information  concerning  various  aspects  of  the  question. 
On  Februarj'  10  another  general  meeting  was  held.  At  this  meet- 
ing the  group  favoring  the  treaty  was  severely  criticized,  hostile 
resolutions  were  adopted,  and  the  House  of  Commons  was  peti- 
tioned to  delay  action  in  order  to  allow  further  consideration. 

'"  Gazetteer  and  New  Daily  Advertiser,  January  12,  1787. 


THE   GENERAL  CHAMBER  OF  MANUFACTURERS  79 

The  controversy  continued  for  some  time,  and  although  those 
favoring  the  treaty  later  at  one  time  regained  control,  the  di- 
vision in  the  Chamber  served  the  purpose  of  the  ministers  in  dis- 
crediting the  organization ;  and  those  who  supported  the  treaty, 
gaining  their  ends  in  the  adoption  of  the  treaty,  were  less  eager, 
apparently,  to  press  the  fight  in  the  Chamber  than  were  those 
who  opposed  the  treaty.  ^°^ 

In  relation  to  the  question  of  commercial  liberalism,  the  im- 
portance of  the  division  in  the  General  Chamber  of  Manufac- 
turers over  the  treaty  with  Prance  consists  in  the  light  it  throws 
on  the  alinement  of  the  manufacturers.  The  older  groups  of  man- 
ufacturers were  wedded  to  monopoly.  The  cotton,  iron,  and  pot- 
tery manufacturers,  who  were  profiting  little  by  monopoly,  and 
indeed  were  held  in  leash  by  trade  restrictions,  favored  the  break- 
down of  the  monopolistic  barriers  in  order  that  they  might  the 
more  readily  extend  their  enterprises  into  new  fields. 

In  view  of  the  undoubted  importance  of  the  General  Cham- 
ber of  Manufacturers,  there  is  a  remarkable  lack  of  contempor- 
aneous comment.  And  yet  the  unmerited  obscurity  of  the  or- 
ganization is  not  inexplicable.  The  common  attitude  of  conde- 
scension toward  manufacturers  by  literary  and  political  writers 
in  part  explains  it,  but  the  chief  reason,  no  doubt,  is  to  be  found 
in  the  methods  used  by  the  Chamber.  During  the  progress  of 
the  Irish  Resolutions  and  of  the  bill  to  repeal  the  cotton  tax 
through  the  House  of  Commons,  the  Chamber  was  so  desirous 
of  keeping  itself  behind  the  scenes  that  it  refused  even  to  petition 
the  House.  And  yet  the  initial  motive  for  its  organization,  it 
will  be  recalled,  was  to  influence  the  government  in  the  consider- 
ation of  these  measures;  and  it  did  exert  a  determining  in- 
fluence.      Its     method     was     indirect,     through     local     bodies, 

"*  Gazetteer  and  New  Daily  Advertiser,  February  7,  12,  17,  19,  21, 
March  19,  April  6,  1787;  Journal  and  Correspondence  of  William,  Lord 
Auckland,  "Vol.  1,  p.  429;  Julia  "Wedgwood,  The  Personal  Life  of  Josiah 
Wedgwood,  p.  224;  British  Merchant  for  1787,  pp.  9-12. 


80  THE  RISE  OF  THE  GREAT   MANUFACTURERS 

and  by  means  of  correspondence  and  consultations.  When 
the  Chamber  divided  in  its  attitude  toward  the  treaty  with 
France,  factionalism  led  to  the  publication  in  the  press  of  ac- 
counts of  its  debates ;  and  one  reason  assigned  by  the  Birming- 
ham Commercial  Committee  for  opposing  the  faction  hostile  to 
the  treaty  was  the  belief  that  ' '  the  publication  of  the  debates  in 
the  General  Chamber  of  Manufacturers  was  exceedingly  im- 
politic.""*' 

But  while  contemporary  writers  for  the  most  part  made  no 
comment,  exceptions  may  be  noted.  Arthur  Young,  as  might  be 
expected  in  view  of  the  wide  range  of  his  observations  and  his 
agrarian  s^inpathies  and  prejudices,  wrote  at  some  length  con- 
cerning the  Chamber,  and  looked  with  suspicion  on  the  concerted 
action  of  the  industrial  group,  fearing  that  the  Chamber  might 
be  made  a  menace  to  ''the  landed  interest."  The  Marquis  of 
Lansdowne  said  in  the  House  of  Lords  that  he  had  no  doubt  that 
"the  Chamber  of  Manufacturers  of  Great  Britain  was  very  re 
spectable, "  and  he  hoped  "they  would  keep  themselves  to  their 
simple  object,  and  not  harbor  the  idea  of  setting  themselves  up 
as  a  body  to  overawe  parliament,  or  to  interfere  with  the  polit- 
ical measures  of  the  country. ' '  ^^^ 

The  fear  expressed  by  Young,  Lansdowne  and  others  that 
the  Chamber  would  lend  itself  to  partisan  and  class  politics 
proved  indeed  to  be  not  without  foundation.  But  in  maintaining 
the  permanent  status  and  influence  of  the  Chamber,  the  members 
encountered  a  more  serious  difficulty.  This  was  the  diversity  of 
interests  represented,  and  particularly  the  great  and  growing 
divergence  between  the  new  capitalistic  manufacturers,  who 
were  tending  toward  laissez-faire  and  commercial  liberalism,  and 


"'  Gazetteer  and  New  Daily  Advertiser,  April  6,  1787. 

"^  Thoughts  on  the  Establishment  of  a  Chamber  of  Manufacturers,  in 
Annals  of  Agriculture,  Vol.  3,  pp.  452-455  (sec  also  pp.  260,  388)  ;  Parlia- 
mentary History,  Vol.  25,  p.  858. 


THE  GENERAL  CHAMBER  OF   MANUFACTURERS  81 

the  older  type  of  manufacturers,  who  continued  to  rely  upon 
primitive  methods  and  state  support  and  protection.  It  was  thivS 
divergence  which  was  chiefly  responsible,  as  already  stated,  for 
the  division  in  the  Chamber  in  1787  in  connection  with  the  treaty 
of  commerce  with  France. 

This  vital  defect  in  the  plan  of  organziation  of  the  Chamber 
serves  better  than  anything  else  to  point  out  the  significance  of 
the  organization  as  an  indication  of  the  emergence  of  the  great 
manufacturers,  distinct  from  the  older  and  more  conservative 
types.  And  in  spite  of  its  defects  and  its  obscurity,  the  General 
Chamber  of  Manufacturers  was  unquestionably  a  body  of  import- 
ance. In  addition  to  its  significance  as  an  indication  of  the  grow- 
ing strength  and  community  of  interest  of  the  new  industrial 
capitalism,  it  promoted  the  local  organization  of  manufacturers 
and  traders  along  substantially  present-day  lines ;  and  it  may  be 
regarded  as  a  fore-runner,  in  effect  if  not  in  form,  of  modern  as- 
sociations of  manufacturers  for  maintaining  lobbies,  committees, 
and  attorneys  to  promote  their  interests  particularly  as  affected 
by  politics.  In  its  intolerance  of  governmental  restrictions  and  in 
its  desire  to  extend  commercial  relations  into  new  fields  by 
breaking  down  the  barriers  of  the  old  protective  system,  it  was  a 
herald  of  nineteenth-century  liberalism.  Its  own  immediate  po- 
litical influence  was  a  manifestation  of  the  forces  which,  though 
checked  by  wartime  reaction,  culminated  in  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury in  the  indirect  domination  of  the  state  by  the  industrial 
oligarchy. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 
The  editions  given  below  are  the  editionf!  cited  in  the  text. 

I.    NON-CONTEMPORANEOUS   ACCOUNTS   AND   BIBLI- 
OGRAPHIES. 

Abram,  W.  A.,  History  of  Blackburn,  Town  and  Parish.    Black- 
burn, 1877. 
Baines,  Edward,  Jr.,  History  of  the  Cotton  Manufacture  in  Great 
Britain.    London.  [1835]. 

A  comprehensive  popular  account  of  the  rise  of  the  cotton  in- 
dustry. 

Baines,  Edward,  and  Whatton,  W.  R.,  History  of  the  County  Pal- 
atine and  Duchy  of  Lancaster.    4  vols.    London,  1836. 
The  biographical  portions  by  Whatton. 
Baines,  Thomas,  and  Fairbairn,  William,  Lancashire  and  Che- 
shire, Past  and  Present.    2  vols.     London,  n.  d. 

The  part  dealing  with  manufactures,  commerce,  and  engineer- 
ing by  Fairbairn. 

Bischoff,  J.,  A  Comprehensive  History  of  the  Woollen  and  Worst- 
ed Manufactures.    2  vols.    London,  1842. 

An  uncritical  collection  of  sources  connected  by  the  author's 
comments. 

Brooke,  R.,  Liverpool  as  It  Was  During  the  Last  Quarter  of  the 

Eighteenth  Century.    Liverpool.  1853. 
Browning,  0.,  The  Treaty  of  Commerce  between  England  and 
France  in  1786.    In  Transactions  of  the  Royal  Historical  So- 
ciety, 1885,  N.  S.,  Vol.  2,  pp.  349-364. 
Chapman,  S.  J.,  The  Lancashire  Cotton  Industry.    A  Study  in 
Economic  Development.     Manchester,  1904. 

A  careful  study  dealing  with  labor  as  well  as  with  capital  in 
the  cotton  industry,  and  containing  a  valuable  selected  and  crit- 
ical bibliography. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  83 

Cunningham,  W.,  Growth  of  English  Industry  and  Commerce  in 

Modern  Times.    Pt.  2.    Cambridge,  1912. 

A  standard  work,  with  valuable  bibliographies. 
Davies,  J.,  A  Collection  of  the  Most  Important  Cases  Respecting 

Patents  of  Invention.    London,  1816. 
Dircks,  H.,  The  Life,  Times,  and  Scientific  Labors  of  the  Second 

Marquis  of  Worcester.    London,  1865. 

An  annotated  reprint  of  Worcester's  Century  of  Inventions 
is  added,  as  well  as  other  documents,  and  bibliographies  of  early 
works  on  mechanical  subjects.  The  work  is  an  interesting  but 
perhaps  exaggerated  commentary  on  the  crude  and  meager  me- 
chanical knowledge  of  Worcester 's  time. 

Dowell,  S.,  A  History  of  Taxation  and  Taxes  in  England.    1  vols. 

Vol.  4,  Taxes  on  Articles  of  Consumption.    London,  1884. 
Dumas,   F.,  Etude  sur  le   traite  de   commerce  de   1786  entre  la 

France  et  VAngleterre.    Toulouse,  1904. 
Ellison,  T.,  The  Cotton  Trade  of  Great  Britain.    London,  1886. 

Uncritical. 
French,   G.  J.,  Life  and   Times  of  Samuel  Crompton.     2d  ed. 

Manchester,  1860. 
Guest,   R.,  Compendious  History  of  the   Cotton  Manufacture. 

Manchester,  1823. 

The  author  attempts  to  disprove  Arkwright's  claim  to  the  in- 
vention of  cotton  machinery,  and  attributes  both  the  spinning 
jenny  and  roller  spinning  to  Thomas  Highs.  A  much-quoted  and 
highly  controversial  work.  Contains  interesting  documents  and 
plates. 

Hammond,  J.  L.  and  Barbara,  The  Town  Laborer,  1760-1832. 

London,  1917. 

An    enlightened    and    attractive    study.      A    bibliography    in 
eluded. 
Hands,   W.,  The   Law  and  Practice  of  Patents  for  Invention. 

London,  1808. 
Helm,  E.,  Chapters  in  the  History  of  the  Manchester  Chamber  of 

Commerce.    London.    [1902]. 
Humphreys,  A.  L.,  A  Handbook  to  County  Bibliography,  being 


84  THE  RISE  OF  THE  GREAT  MANUFACTURERS 

a  Bibliography  of  Bihliographies  Relating  to  the  Counties 
and  Towns  of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland.    London,  1917. 
McCulloch,  J.  R.,  The  Literature  of  Political  Economy.    London, 
1845. 

A   "classified  catalogue,   with  historical,  critical,  and 

biographical  notes. ' '  Unless  the  author 's  well-known  preconcep- 
tions in  favor  of  Ricardian  economics  are  kept  in  mind,  the 
criticisms  are  misleading,  but  the  work  contains  valuable  infor- 
mation. 

MacNeill,  J.  G.  S.,  The  Constitutional  and  Parliamentary  His- 
tory of  Ireland  till  the  Union.    New  York,  1918. 

Used  in  connection  with  the  Irish  Resolutions  of  1785.  Mainly 
political,  and  based  principally  on  non-contemporaneous  accounts. 

Mantoux,  Paul,  La  Bevolution  Industrielle  an  XVIII ^    siecle: 

Essai  sur  les  commencements  de  la  grande  industrie  moderne 

en  Angleterre.    Paris,  1905. 

A  comprehensive  and  valuable  study,  with  extensive  bibliog- 
raphy, in  part  critical. 

Meteyard,  E.,  Life  of  Josiah  Wedgwood.    2  vols.    London,  1865, 

1866. 

Lacking  in  critical  apparatus  and  at  times  in  critical  insight, 
but  useful  particularly  because  of  quotations  from  manuscripts. 

Moulton,  H.  F.,  The  Present  Law  and  Practice  Relating  to  Let- 
ters Patent  for  Inventions.    London,  1913. 

Owen,  Robert,  The  Life  of  Robert  Owen  Written  by  Himself. 
London,  1857. 

Parker,  C.  S.,  Sir  Robert  Peel,  from  His  Private  Papers.  3  vols. 
London,  1891,  1899. 

Virtually  a  collection  of  sources.  The  first  few  pages  of 
Vol.  1  deal  with  the  prime  minister 's  father  and  grandfather, 
both  manufacturers. 

Radcliffe,  William,  Origin  of  the  New  System  of  Manufacture 

Commonly    Called    ^'Power-Loom    Weaving."      Stockport, 

1828. 

Contains  reminiscences  of  the  author's  experiences  during  the 
period  of  transition  to  power  spinning  in  the  cotton  industry. 

Rose,  J.  H.,  William  Pitt  and  National  Revival.    London,  1911. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  35 

Rose,  J.  H.,  The  Franco-British  Commercial  Treaty.  In  English 
Historical  Review,  1908,  Vol.  23,  pp.  709-724. 

[Strickland,  Mary  Cartwright],  A  Memoir  of  the  Life,  Writings, 
and  Mechanical  Inventions  of  Edmund  Cartwright.  Lon- 
don, 1843. 

[Troughton,  T.],  The  History  of  Liverpool.    Liverpool,  1810. 

Wedgwood,  Julia,  The  Personal  Life  of  Josiah  Wedgwood.  Lon- 
don, 1915. 

Wheeler,  J,,  Manchester :  Its  Political,  Social,  and  Commercial 
History,  Ancient  and  Modern.    1836. 
Of  slight  value. 

White,  G.  S.,  Memoirs  of  Samuel  Slater.    2d  ed.,  Phila.,  1836. 

Wood,  H.  T.,  A  History  of  the  Royal  Society  of  Arts.  London, 
1913. 

II.     CONTEMPORANEOUS  SOURCES  OF  INFORMATION. 
1.     Official  Publications. 

Minutes  of  the  Evidence  taken  before  a  Committee  of  the  House 
of  Commons  (on  Irish  Resolutions).    1785. 

Minutes  of  the  Evidence  taken  before  a  Committee  of  the  House 
of  Lords  (on  Irish  Resolutions).    1785. 

The  Report  of  the  Comynissioners  for His  Majesty's  Cus- 
toms (on  Irish  Resolutions).    1785. 

Report  of  the  Commissioners  of  Excise  to  the  Committee  of  the 
Honorable  the  House  of  Commons  (on  Irish  Resolutions). 
1785. 

Report  of  the  Lords  of  the  Committee  of  Council Relating 

to  Trade  and  Foreign  Plantations  upon  the  two  Questions 
Referred  to  them  by  His  Majesty's  Order  in  Council  of  the 
14th  of  January  last.    1785.     (On  Irish  Resolutions). 

Report  from  the  Select  Committee  on  the  Laws  Relating  to  the 
Export  of  Tools  and  Machinery.    1825. 


86  THE  RISE  OF  THE  GREAT  MANUFACTURERS 

This  report,  and  the  two  immediately  following,  while  not  con- 
temporaneous with  the  period  under  investigation,  are  used  to 
show  a  continuation  of  the  policy  of  monopolizing  inventions  be- 
yond the  period  in  question. 

First  Report  from  the  Select  Committee  Appointed  to  Inquire 
into  the  Operation  of  the  Existing  Laws  Affecting  the  Ex- 
portation of  Machinery.    1841. 

Second  Report  from  the  Select  Committee  Appointed  to  Inquire 
into  the  Operation  of  the  Existing  Laws  Affecting  the  Ex- 
portation of  Machinery.    1841. 

Journals  of  the  House  of  Commons. 

Journals  of  the  House  of  Lords. 

Statutes  at  Large. 

Calendar  of  Home  Office  Papers  of  the  Reign  of  George  III 
(1760-1775).    4  vols. 

Manuscripts  of  the  Duke  of  Rutland  (Historical  MSS.  Commis- 
sion).   3  vols.    1894. 

Suiject-matter  Index  of  Patents  of  Invention  from  March  2, 
1617,  to  October  1,  1852.  Compiled  by  Bennett  Woodcroft, 
of  the  Patent  Office.    2  vols.     London,  1857. 

Used  chiefly  as  an  index  to  Woodcroft 's  Titles  of  Patents  of 
Invention. 

Titles  of  Patents  of  Invention  from  March  2,  1617  to  October  1, 
1852.  Compiled  by  Bennett  Woodcroft.  2  vols.  London, 
1854. 

Titles  only  are  given,  but  the  reproduction  is  exact,  and  the 
information  is  usually  complete  enough  to  be  definitely  de- 
scriptive. 

2.     Publications  of  Societies  and  Miscellaneous  Collections 

OP  Sources. 

Transactions  of  the  Society   for  the  Encouragement  of 

Arts,  Manufactures  and  Commerce.     Published  annually. 
Publication  was  not  begun  till   1783,  but  the  early  volumes 
contain   extensive  information   concerning   the   earlier   activities 
of  the  Society,  compiled  from  the  Society's  records. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  8? 

The  Advancement  of  Arts,  Manufactures  and  Commerce;  or, 
Descriptions  of  the  Useful  Machines  and  Models  Contained 
in  the  Repository  of  the  Society  for  the  Encouragement  of 
Arts,  Manufactures  and  Commerce.  Compiled  by  W.  Bail- 
ey.   London,  1772. 

One  Hundred  and  Six  Copper  Plates  of  Mechanical  Machines  and 
Implements  of  Husbandry  Approved  and  Adopted  by  the 
Society  for  the  Encouragement  of  Arts,  Manufactures  and 
Commerce.    Compiled  by  A.  M.  Bailey.    London,  1782. 

Muse^im  Eusticum  et  Commerciale:  or,  Select  Papers  on  Agri- 
culture, Commerce,  Arts,  and  Manufactures.  6  vols.  Lon- 
don, 1764-1766. 

Under  the  patronage  of  members  of  the  Society  of  Arta. 

Memoirs  of  Agriculture  and  other  Economical  Arts.  Compiled 
by  Robert  Dossie,  with  the  support  of  the  Society  of  Arts. 
2  vols.    London,  1768. 

Memoirs  of  the  Manchester  Literary  and  Philosophical  Society. 
London,  1785,  etc. 

College  of  Arts  and  Sciences  Instituted  at  Manchester,  June  6, 
1783.     (A  circular  dated  July  9,  1783). 

Letters  and  Papers  of  the  Society  at  Bath  for  the  Encourage- 
ment of  Agriculture,  Arts,  Manufactures  and  Commerce. 
Bath,  1783,  etc. 

Rules  and  Orders  of  the  Society  Instituted  at  Bath,  etc.  Bath, 
1783. 

Plan  of  the  Literary  and  Philosophical  Society  of  Newcastle  upon 
Tyne.    1793. 

Philosophical  Transactions  of  the  Royal  Society  of  London.  The 
Royal  Society  adhered  in  the  main  to  its  traditional  interest 
in  abstract  philosophy  and  pure  science.  A  notable  excep- 
tion was  the  publication  of  Dr.  Thomas  Percival's  Observa- 
tions on  the  State  of  Population  in  Manchester  and  Other 
Adjacent  Places,  in  Vol.  64  (1774),  pp.  54-66,  Vol.  65 
(1775),  pp.  322-335,  and  Vol.  66  (1776),  pp.  160-167. 


88  THE  RISE  OP  THE  GREAT  MANUFACTURERS 

Collectanea  Relating  to  Manchester  and  Its  Neighborhood.  Ed- 
ited by  John  Harland.  2  vols.  Vols.  68  (1866)  and  72 
(1867)  in  Remains,  Historical  and  Literary,  Connected  with 
the  Palatine  Counties  of  Lancaster  and  Chester,  published 
by  the  Chetham  Society. 
Cobbett's  Parliamentary  History.     Vols.  15-30,  London,  1813- 

1817. 
The  Parliamentary  Register.    Volumes  1-30,  1775-1791. 

An  unofficial  but  contemporaneous  publication  of  parliamen- 
tary debates.  Not  as  authentic  as  Cobbett  's  Parliamentary  His- 
tory, but  containing  some  matters  of  value  not  found  in  the  lat- 
ter work. 

The  Journal  and  Correspondence  of  William,  Lord  Auckland. 
Edited  by  George  Hogge.    4  vols.    London,  1861. 

Vol.  1  contains  important  papers  as  well  as  correspondence  re- 
lating to  the  treaty  with  France,  1786. 

Correspondence  between  the  Right  Honble.  William  Pitt  and 
Charles  Duke  of  Rutland,  Lord  Lieutenant  of  Ireland. 
1781-1787.  Introductory  note  by  John  Duke  of  Rutland. 
Edinburgh  and  London,  1890. 

Valuable  especially  in  connection  with  the  Irish  Resolutions. 
Langford,  J.  A.,  A  Century  of  Birmingham  Life.    2  vols.     Bir- 
mingham, 1868. 

This  work  consists  almost  wholly  of  extracts  from  local  con- 
temporaneous literature.     Indifferently  organized. 

3.    Periodicals. 
Annals  of  Agriculture.    London,  1784,  etc. 

Edited  by  Arthur  Young,  who  was  also  the  principal  con- 
tributor. 

Annual  Register.    London,  1758,  etc. 

European  Magazine  and  London  Review.    London,  1782,  etc. 

The  Gazetteer  and  New  Daily  Advertiser.    London. 

Chiefly  useful  for  the  official  announcements,  resolutions,  etc., 
of  the  General  Chamber  of  Manufacturers  and  other  commercial 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  89 

and  industrial  bodies.     Its  news  items  and  comments  are  also 
valuable  if  proper  account  is  taken  of  their  political  bias. 

Gentleman's  Magazine.    London. 

New  Annual  Register.    London,  1780,  etc. 

Of  slight  value;  political  and  literary  almost  exclusively. 

4.    Works  op  Reperence,  History,  Travel,  and  Description. 

Aikin,  J.,  A  Description  of  the  Country  from  Thirty  to  Forty 

Miles  Bound  Manchester.    London,  1795. 

Compiled  and  edited  by  a  physician  and  writer  of  note.  Pub- 
lished in  1795,  but  described  by  the  publishers  as  a  "  laborious 
undertaking,"  requiring  long  labor.  Radford's  Directory  of 
Manchester,  published  in  1788,  omitted  a  description  of  manu- 
factures on  the  ground  that  this  would  have  ' '  anticipated  in  some 
degree  another  work  [which  has]  long  been  preparing  for  the 
public  eye,  viz.,  A  Description  of  Manchester  and  the  country 
twenty  miles  round, ' ' — an  obvious  reference  to  Aikin  'a  work. 
(John  Harland,  Collectanea  Belating  to  Manchester,  p.  138).  A 
work  of  great  value. 

Anderson,  A.,  An  Historical  and  Chronological  Deduction  of  the 
Origin   of  Commerce.    4   vols.,  revised   ed.,  London,    1787, 
1789. 
Baldwin,  T.,  Airopaidia.     Chester,  1786. 

Described  by  the  author  as  "an  introduction  to  aerial  navi- 
gation. ' ' 

Companion  to  the  Leasowes,  Hagley,  and  Enville,    to 

Which  Is  Prefixed  the  Present  State  of  Birmingham.  Lon- 
don, 1789. 

Encyclopedia  Britannica.    1st,  2d,  and  3d  eds. 

The  third  edition  was  published  later  than  the  period  covered 
by  this  study.  Internal  evidence  shows,  however,  that  the  articles 
used  in  the  present  study  were  written  not  later  than  1792. 
In  the  article  on  Manchester,  reference  is  made  to  * '  the  mar- 
riages in  Manchester  and  Salford  from  January  1791  to  Januar}- 
1792."  Hence  the  article  was  not  written  earlier  than  1792. 
In  the  same  article  is  a  further  statement  to  the  effect  that  a 
certain  work  "will  be  published  in  the  early  spring  of  1793." 
This  article  was  therefore  compiled  in  1792.  The  article  on  cot- 
ton states  that  the  quantity  of  raw  cotton  consumed  six  years 


90  THE  RISE  OP  THE  GREAT  MANUFACTURERS 

earlier  was  11,000,000  pounds.  Approximately  11,000,000  pounds 
were  consumed,  according  to  a  table  given  in  the  same  article, 
both  in  1782  and  in  1784.  The  date  of  compilation  of  this 
article  was  therefore  either  1788  or  1790. 

Harte,  W.,  Essays  on  Husbandry.  2d  ed.,  London,  1770. 
[Ogden,  JamesJ,  A  Description  of  Manchester.  By  a  Native  of 
the  Town.  Manchester,  1783.  (Reprinted  under  the  title, 
Manchester  a  Hundred  Years  Ago,  edited  by  W.  E.  A.  Axon. 
Manchester,  1887.  The  edition  used  is  the  reprint). 
Peacock,  J.,  Proposals  for  a  Magnificent  and  Interesting  Estab- 
lishment.   London,  1790. 

Affords  singular  evidence  of  the  industrial  and  mechanical 
interests  of  the  time. 

Ruggles,  T.,  The  History  of  the  Poor;  their  Rights,  Duties,  and 

the  Laws  Respecting  Them.    2  vols.    London,  1793,  1794. 

A  work  which  had  appeared  serially  in  Young's  Annala  of  Ag- 
riculture. Written  from  the  not  too  enlightened  point  of  view 
of  a  country  gentleman,  but  apparently  an  attempt  to  give  an 
unbiased  account. 

Stone,  T.,  An  Essay  on  Agriculture.    Lynn,  1785. 

Opposed  to  labor-saving  machines. 
Walpole,  G.  A.,  New  British  Traveller.    London,  1784. 
Wendeborn,  F.  A.,  A  View  of  England  towards  the  Close  of  the 
Eighteenth  Century.    2  vols.    London,  1791. 

Translated  by  the  author  from  the  original  German  edition. 
The  author  states  in  his  preface  that  "he  wrote  merely  for  the 
instruction  of  his  own  countrymen,"  that  is,  Germans;  that  "it 
was  much  read  on  the  continent  and  has  been  translated  into 
other  languages."  He  states  further  that  he  came  to  England 
at  the  age  of  twenty-five  and  ministered  twenty-two  years  to  a 
German  congregation  in  London.    Critical  of  English  life. 

Young,  A.,  A  Six  Months'  Tour  Through  the  North  of  England. 
4  vols.,  2d  ed.,  London,  1771. 

[Young,  A.],  A  Six  Weeks'  Tour  Through  the  Southern  Counties 
of  England  and  Wales.    Dublin,  1768. 

Young,  A.,  Tour  in  Ireland.  Edited  by  A.  W.  Hutton,  with  bib- 
liography of  Young's  works.    2  vols.    London,  1892. 

Young,  A.,  TraA)els  during  the  Years  1787,  1788  and  1789  Vn- 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  91 

dertaken  more  Particularly  with  a  View  of  Ascertaining  the 
Cultivation,  Wealth,  Resources,  and  National  Prosperity  of 
the  Kingdom  of  France.    2d  ed.,  London,  1794. 

Useful  particularly  in  connection  with  the  commercial  treaty 
with  France,  and  with  French  interests  in  English  inventions. 

5.     Books  and  Pamphlets  of  a  Controversial  and  Critical 

Nature. 

Anstie,  J.,  Observations  on  the  Importance  and  Necessity  of  In- 
troducing Improved  Machinery  into  the  Woollen  Manufac- 
tory,    [especially]  of  the  Counties  of  Wilts,  Glouces- 
ter and  Somerset.    London,  1803. 

By  a  woollen  manufacturer.  Written  later  than  the  period 
studied,  but  affording  all  the  more  valid  evidence  of  the  lateness 
and  the  sectional  nature  of  the  transition  to  improved  methods 
in  the  woollen  industry. 

An  Answer  to  the  Complete  Investigation  of  Mr.  Eden's  Treaty. 
London,  1787. 

Favorable  to  the  treaty. 

Bentham,  Jeremy,  Defense  of  Usury, to  Which  Is  Added  a 

Letter  to  Adam  Smith,  Esq.,  L.  L.  D.,  on  the  Discourage- 
ment of  Inventive  Industry.    Philadelphia,  1796. 

Written  in  1787.     A  vindication  of  "inventive  industry." 

The  British  Merchant  for  1787.    Addressed  to  the  Chamber  of 

Manufacturers.    London,  1787. 

Hostile  to  the  treaty  with  France,  and  to  the  General  Chamber 
of  Manufacturers  because  of  its  support  of  the  treaty. 

Chalmers,  George,  An  Estimate  of  the  Comparative  Strength  of 
Great  Britain  during  the  Present  and  Four  Preceding 
Reigns.    London. 

This  work  went  through  a  number  of  editions,  the  editions 
used   being  those   of    1786   and    1794.     The   author   states    (ed. 

1794,  p.   ii)    that  "the  former  editions   were  translated 

into  the  languages  of  the  Continent. ' '     Controversial,  but  based 
on  an  extensive  study  of  facts. 


92  THE  RISE  OF  THE  GREAT  MANUFACTURERS 

A  Complete  Investigation  of  Mr.  Eden's  Treaty.    London,  1787. 

Opposed  to  the  treaty. 
The  Contrast;  or,  a  Comparison  between  our  Woollen,  Linen, 

Cotton  and  Silk  Manufactures.    London,  1782. 
Eden,  W.,  Four  Letters  to  the  Earl  of  Carlisle The  Third 

Edition,  to  Which  Is  Added  a  Fifth  Letter  on  Population. 

London,  1780. 
[Eden,  W.],  A  Short  Vindication  of  the  French  Treaty  from  the 

Charges  Brought  against  It  in  a  late  Pamphlet,  Entitled,  A 

View  of  the  Treaty  of  Commerce  with  France.  London,  1787. 

Of  special  interest  because  written  by  the  negotiator  of  the 
treaty. 

Gisborne,  T.,  An  Enquiry  into  the  Duties  of  Men  in  the  Higher 
and  Middle  Classes  of  Society  in  Great  Britain.  Ch.  13,  On 
the  Duties  of  Persons  engaged  in  Trade  and  Business.  Lon- 
don, 1794. 

A  popular  work  on  morals,  taking  into  account  changing  in- 
dustrial conditions. 

Historical  and  Political  Remarks  upon  the  Tariff  of  the  Commer- 
cial Treaty.    London,  1787. 

An  anonymous  but  careful  analysis  of  the  treaty,  with  ex- 
tensive notes  on  preceding  treaties  and  on  industrial  conditions. 

Howlett,  J.,  An  Examination  of  Dr.  Price's  Essay  on  the  Popula- 
tion of  England  and  Wales.    Maidstone.    [1781  ( ?)  ]. 

Howlett,  in  opposition  to  Dr.  Price,  was  one  of  the  principal 
champions  of  the  view  that  population  was  increasing,  particu- 
larly in  the  industrial  regions.  A  valuable  work.  The  author 
also  contributed  useful  articles  to  the  Annals  of  Agriculture 
and  the  Gentleman's  Magazine. 

The  Increase  of  Manufactures,  Commerce  and  Finance.    London, 

1785. 
Kenriek,  "W.,  An  Address  to  the  Artists  and  Manufacturers  of 

Great  Britain  Respecting  an  Application  to  Parliament  for 

the  farther  Encouragement  of  New  Discoveries  and  Inven 

tions  in  the  Useful  Arts.    London,  1774. 
Valuable. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  93 

A  Letter  from  a  Manchester  Manufacturer  to  the  Right  Honor- 
able Charles  James  Fox  on  his  Political  Opposition  to  the 
Commercial  Treaty  with  France.    Manchester,  1787. 

Bitterly  critical  of  Fox,  and  typical  of  the  attitude  of  Man- 
chester in  support  of  the  treaty. 

The  Necessity  and  Policy  of  the  Commercial  Treaty  with  France 

Considered.    London,  1787. 

New  and  Old  Principles  of  Trade  Compared;  or,  a  Treatise  on 

the   Principles   of   Commerce    between   Nations.      London, 

1788. 

A  clear  statement  of  the  contrast  between  ' '  monopoly ' '  and 
"free  trade,"  in  favor  of  the  latter. 

Observations  on  a  Bill  Relating  to  Wool.    Preface  by  Sir  Joseph 

Banks.    Preface  dated  London,  1787. 

Political  Essays  concerning  the  Present  State  of  the  British  Em 

pire.    London,  1772. 

A  large  number  of  citations  and  quotations  of  value.  A  use- 
ful work.     The  term  "political"  is  very  broadly  interpreted. 

Price,  R.,  An  Essay  on  the  Population  of  England  from  the  Rev- 
olution to  the  Present  Time.    London,  1780. 

This  work,  which  contended  that  population  was  declining, 
gave  rise  to  a  notable  controversy  extending  to  the  first  census. 
Howlett's  Examination  of  Dr.  Price's  Essay  was  perhaps  the 
most  effective  presentation  of  the  opposing  view. 

Sheffeld,  John  Lord,  Observations  on  the  Commerce  of  the 
American  States.    6th  ed.,  London,  1784. 

Lord  Sheffield's  writings  often  assumed  an  expository  and  de- 
scriptive appearance,  but  were  in  most  cases  controversial. 

Sheffield,  John  Lord,  Observations  on  the  Corn  Bill  now  Depend- 
ing in  Parliament.    2d  ed.,  London,  1791. 

Sheffield,  John  Lord,  Observations  on  the  Manufactures,  Trade 
and  Present  State  of  Ireland.    London,  1785. 
Hostile  to  the  Irish  Resolutions. 

Smith,  Adam,  Inquiry  into  the  Nature  and  Causes  of  the  Wealth 

of  Nations. 

In  order  to  discover  the  author's  reactions  to  the  industrial 
changes  of  the  time,  the  various  editions  of  the  work,  up  to  the 


94  THE  RISE  OF  THE  GREAT  MANUFACTURERS 

8th  edition,   1796,  were  consulted.     For  the  same  purpose,  his 
other  writings  were  examined. 

Steuart,  Sir  James,  An  Inquiry  into  the  Principles  of  Political 

Economy.    2  vols.    London,  1767. 
T.,  Letters  on  the  Utility  and  Policy  of  Employing  Machines  to 

Shorten  Labor.    London,  1780. 

Addressed  to  a  cotton  manufacturer,  and  "occasioned,"  the 
author  states  in  his  sub-title,  "by  the  late  disturbances  in  Lan- 
cashire. ' ' 

Thoughts  on  the  Causes  of  the  Present  Failures.  3d  ed.,  London, 
1793. 

Tucker,  Josiah,  Four  Tracts  on  Political  and  Commercial  Sub- 
jects.   3d  ed.,  Gloucester,  1776, 

Tucker,  Josiah,  Reflections  on  the  Present  Low  Price  of  Coarse 
Wools.    London,  1782. 

A  View  of  the  Treaty  of  Commerce  with  France.    London,  1787. 

Considered  by  Eden  of  such  importance  as  to  call  forth  his 
Short  Vindication  of  the  French  Treaty. 

Wales,  W.,  An  Inquiry  into  the  Present  State  of  Population  in 
England  and  Wales.    London,  1781. 

Wansey,  H.,  Wool  Encouraged  without  Exportation;  or  Practi- 
cal Observations  on  Wool  and  the  Woollen  Manufacture. 
London,  1791. 

The  author  was  a  manufacturer  of  wool  in  the  West  of  Eng- 
land (pp.  67,  68).     A  useful  pamphlet. 

Wilson,  Jasper,  A  Letter,  Commercial  and  Political,  Addressed 

to  the  Rt.  Honorable  Williayn  Pitt.    2d  ed.,  London,  1793. 

This  work  was  attributed  by  George  Chalmers  to  James  Cur- 
rie,  M.  D.,  F.  E.  S.  (An  Estimate  of  the  Comparative  Strength  of 
Great  Britain,  ed.  1794,  Dedication,  p.  i),  and  was  considered  of 
such  importance  by  Chalmers  as  to  elicit  an  extended  Dedication 
of  the  revised  edition  of  his  work  to  Dr.  Currie,  in  which  he  took 
issue  with  Currie  on  various  subjects. 

A  Woollen  Draper's  Letter  on  the  French  Treaty.    London,  1786. 
Opposed  to  the  treaty. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  95 

Wright,  J.,  An  Address  to Parliament  on  the  Late  Tax 

Laid  on  Fustian  and  other  Cotton  Goods.  Warrington,  1785. 
An  important  contribution  to  the  excise  controversy.  The  sub- 
title bases  the  Address  on  the  wisdom  and  policy  of  leaving  "ev- 
ery species  of  manufacture  and  commerce  free  from  every  re- 
straint or  tax  whatever. ' '  Written  by  an  army  surgeon  and 
honorary  physician  to  the  Manchester  Infirmary,  dismissed  from 
the  staff  of  the  Infirmary  in  1782  because  of  a  controversy  with 
the  hospital  management. 


K 


14  DAY  USE 

RETURN  TO  DESK  FROM  WHICH  BORROWED 

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Renewed  books  are  subject  to  immediate  recall. 

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